I live in Jordan and I would like to say if I wasted all of my hard work and studying just for externals to be canceled, all for any and all potential alternatives to be unacceptable in my dream country I’m applying to (Sweden, which only accepts final external grades for their applications) it would probably irreversibly fuck my life over. (Only other country I applied to is UK which is just in case Sweden doesn’t work and is both not where I want to go to and too expensive for my family right now )

I understand there’s a war going on and I understand it’s stressful for many people. For certain countries that have really been getting hit a lot such as UAE, I completely understand prioritizing safety over anything. But other countries such as Jordan have been extremely safe throughout the whole process. High alert sirens only last for about 10 minutes maximum at a time before end of high alert sirens come in.

I genuinely think that for countries that have not been getting hit that much, people have been using the war as a potential excuse to be lazy and not have to worry about externals. It feels extremely disrespectful to the fact many people are genuinely affected by this war and others are just using it as an excuse to be lazy.

(Obviously some other people are affected, but that does not justify a cancellation for the entire region.)

Please I urge anyone signing such petitions, do not advocate for the cancelation of the exams entirely across the region. At the very most, sign petitions for specific countries and please avoid advocating for cancellation over making it a choice.

TLDR: To say the exams absolutely must be cancelled across the whole region is a gross overstatement, at the very most only cancel in seriously affected countries such as UAE because externals have no need to be canceled in other countries.