Boards to be held as scheduled

New Delhi:  Over a lakh students from classes X and XII have signed petitions urging the government to either cancel the board exams schedul...

New Delhi: Over a lakh students from classes X and XII have signed petitions urging the government to either cancel the board exams scheduled to be held in May or conduct them in online mode in the wake of the huge surge in Covid cases across the country. The hashtag "cancelboardexams2021" has been trending on Twitter for the past two days.

However, both the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) have said that adequate safety arrangements are being made for students and all Covid-19 guidelines will be followed during the exams.

"The situation in India is getting worse day by day. When there were only a few cases in the country, they cancelled the remaining board exams and now when the cases are at a peak they are planning to open schools. We urge the education minister to look into this matter and cancel all examinations to be held this year as students are already under a lot of stress," a petition on Change.org said.

A class X student, on Twitter has urged the government to postpone the exams for at least 30 days and then do a review based on the number of cases.

"The students have already faced a lot of problems till now in this pandemic. Classes were held online so the exams should also be held online or students should be promoted via internal assessment marks," another user tweeted.

Practical exams are usually held in January and written exams begin in February and end in March. However, in view of the pandemic situation the exams were re scheduled to be held in May-June.

"Adequate arrangements are being made to ensure the students are safe and all Covid protocols are followed. The number of exam centres has been increased by 40-50 per cent to ensure social distancing. The staff at exam centres is being sensitised to ensure all guidelines are followed," a senior CBSE official said.

Last week the board had announced that if any student fails to appear for ongoing practical exams after the student or any family member tested positive, the schools will conduct re-tests for them at an appropriate time.

But the official did not say whether the same relaxation will be given to students for the theory exams as well.

Gerry Arathoon, the chief executive and secretary at CISCE, also said the schedule for the exams "will remain the same".

Last year, the board exams had to be postponed mid-way in March. They were later cancelled and the results were announced on the basis of an alternative assessment scheme.

Both the CBSE and CISCE had decided not to come up with a merit list last year.

(Agencies)