Cancel CBSE Board Exams considering prevailing pandemic situation: Sisodia wrote to HRD Minister

With the rising number of COVID-19 cases in India, Delhi education minister urged HRD minister to consider cancelling pending CBSE board exams. In his letter to Mr Pokhriyal, he further listed down the risks involved in conducting the 10th, 12th board exams amid the ongoing pandemic situation. 

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on June 17, 2020 wrote to the union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ requesting him to cancel the scheduled CBSE 10^th board exams and CBSE 12^th Board Exams which are planned to be conducted in the month of July. He further asked the HRD Minister to promote all students based on their internal assessment citing the rising cases of COVID-19 in the national capital.

Latest Update:Cancelling pending CBSE, CISCE board exams not possible; know why

Earlier on April 28, during a virtual meeting conducted with state education ministers, Mr Sisodia made a similar request with the HRD minister in view of the prevailing pandemic circumstances. However, the ministry on May 8 announced to conduct that the pending 29 CBSE exams of classes 10 and 12 will be conducted in July. According to the revised CBSE 10^th date sheet 2020 and CBSE 12^th date sheet 2020, the 10^th, 12^th pending CBSE exams are supposed to be held between July 1 and July 15.

While urging the HRD Minister to cancel CBSE board exams in his letter, Sisodia said, “I am writing to draw your attention towards my concern regarding the plan of CBSE to conduct the remaining exams of class 10 and 12 in July. I hope you would agree with me that the board exams, particularly those of class 12 are high stake exams for children. Hence, subjecting them to take this exam in such an uncertain and anxiety-prone situation would not be fair to them.”

Bringing under notice the difficulties and risk of conducting pending CBSE 10^th, 12^th board exams, Sisodia added, “During the last one week, the daily number of cases getting covid-19 positive has been rising and the total number of confirmed cases now stands at 44, 688 (as of June 16). This is likely to rise to 5.5 lakh by July 31, 2020. In such a situation, if a candidate or someone in the family tests positive, he or she will have to skip the exam causing further distress.”

Also Read: SC asks CBSE to consider scrapping 10th, 12th board exams; award marks as per internal assessment

Stating the rising COVID-19 cases in India, the education minister said that there are 242 containment zones in the capital presently and the number will rise in future. “As per the current CBSE plan, a school in these zones will not be used as an exam centre but there is no clarity on how children from these zones will come out to take exams,” he said.

Mr Sisodia also explained that as many as 251 government schools in Delhi are currently converted into dry ration distribution centres, 33 schools are converted into hunger relief centres, 39 as shelter homes, 10 as migrant camps and another 10 as quarantine centres, and therefore, “These schools will not be in a position of conducting exams from July 1, 2020.”

Sharing the preparations of Delhi government to fight against the COVID-19 spread, the Delhi Deputy CM said that they are planning to use auditoriums in nearly 242 schools to set up beds for the novel coronavirus patients to meet the requirement of additional beds, which is estimated around 80,000 by the end of July. “Holding exams in the same building where there would be hundreds of COVID-19 patients would be a serious risk. In such a situation using school buildings between July 1 and July 15 and ensuring that all eligible students take their exams may be extremely difficult,”the minister added .

Mr Sisosdia again laid down his request to cancel pending CBSE board exam and mark all students based on internal assessment. He added, “Therefore, I once again request you to remove any further uncertainty and declare that exams in 29 subjects proposed to be conducted in July will not be conducted at all. For the results in these subjects, the CBSE may rely upon the previous school-based internal assessments which include project work, periodic tests, term exams, etc.”

The maximum number of pending papers will be held in northeast Delhi, where exams were curtailed due to the communal riots in the last week of February. Exams for the entire country were postponed on March 19, due to the outbreak of the pandemic novel coronavirus. While the exams for subjects of class 12 will be held across the country, the exams for class 10 will be held only in northeast Delhi.

Meanwhile talking about the CBSE 10^th results and CBSE 12^th results, the HRD Minister announced that the Central Board of Secondary Education would release the CBSE 10^th Results 2020 and CBSE 12^th Results 2020 almost a month after the conduction of pending CBSE exams i.e. around August 15.

Read More:

• CBSE Board Exams 2020 in 'Containment Zones' too risky, know why
• CBSE Board Results 2020: Check date of announcement and important updates here