COVID-19: Examinees Want Boards Cancelled; Boards Unperturbed

New Delhi: In view of the surge in COVID-19 cases throughout the country, more than one lakh students of classes X and XII have signed petitions urging the government to either cancel board exams or conduct them in online mode. The board exams are scheduled to be held in May.

The hashtag “cancelboardexams2021” has been trending on Twitter for the last couple of days.

Both the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) have, however, said that adequate safety arrangements are in place for students and all COVID-19 guidelines will be complied with 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,” said a petition on Change.org.

“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 was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Class X student, Divya Garg urged the Centre to defer the exams for at least a month and then after a further review, take a call.

“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 student tweeted.

It may be recalled that the CBSE had last week declared that if any student fails to appear for ongoing practical exams for COVID reasons, the schools will conduct re-tests at an appropriate time for them.

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The Central board official though didn’t specify whether the same would be allowed for students in theory exams as well.

Chief executive and secretary at CISCE, Gerry Arathoon also said that the exam schedule “will remain the same”.

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