New Delhi: The Union government has decided to call off the Class-10 final examinations to be held by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) amid a second surge of the COVID-19 in the country. The Class-12 board exams, however, have been postponed. The crucial decision came in a high-level meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.
The new dates for Class-12 exams will be announced after June 1, and a 15-day prior notice will be given to the students.
Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', education secretary and other officials attended the meeting called in the wake of increasing demands to cancel the exams.
The results of Class-10 students will be prepared on the basis of an objective criterion to be developed by the Board.
“Any candidate who is not satisfied with the marks allocated to him/her on this basis will be given an opportunity to sit in an exam as and when the conditions are conducive to hold the exams.” Pokhriyal said.
The Class 10 exams were to be held between May 4 and June 7 and the Class 12 exams were planned between May 4 and June 15 as per a revised CBSE schedule.
On Sunday Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi had wrote a letter to the Education Minister asking to cancel the CBSE board exams 2021 in light of the increasing Covid-19 cases so that the safety of students could be ensured.
"In the light of the devastating Corona second wave, conducting #CBSE exams must be reconsidered. All stakeholders must be consulted before making sweeping decisions. On how many counts does GOI intend to play with the future of India’s youth?" Rahul Gandhi had tweeted.
What happened last year
In the last academic year the board exams were held only partially owing to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and imposition of lockdown in late March. The exams for class 10 and 12 had commenced in February as usual, but several papers that were initially postponed for July were not held as the pandemic situation remained grim. The pending exams were cancelled in late June, but the results were declared on the basis of an alternate assessment scheme by which marks were awarded on basis of those scored by a student in his or her best performing subjects. The scheme received the Supreme Court nod after a group of parents had approached it with a batch of pleas seeking relief, including the scrapping of remaining exams in view of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
The current scenario
A year later a similar situation exists in the country as the pandemic surges after a lull. The country has been registering a steady rise in the COVID-19 cases for the 35th day in a row, thus proving a second wave of the pandemic is on. The overall COVID-19 death toll in India increased to 1,72,085 with 1,027 new fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, the health ministry data put out on Wednesday reveals. In all 1,84,372 new cases of infections were also recorded in the same period.