Tuesday, 25 May 2021 | Deepak Kumar Jha | New Delhi
Final call on June 1; States, UTs told to submit concerns, proposals by May 25
With several States and Union Territories reluctant to hold the Class XII Board exams in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic, sources in the Ministry of Education said the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has proposed the exams in a staggered manner from July 15 to August 26. An official announcement regarding this is likely to be made on June 1.
A top Government official also confirmed that the Ministry will review the suggestions received from the States and other stakeholders and present them to the PMO for taking the final call on the contentious issues, which could impact the career prospects of about 1.25 crore Class XII board examinees.
Bihar, Kerala and Nagaland are the only State Education boards which have already conducted the Class XII board examinations between February end to mid-April, whereas States like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat are in favour of conducting the examination as usual since Covid-19 cases are under control.
The exams of Class 12 board CBSE and ICSE affiliated schools in these States are pending. The CBSE sources said the exams will be held only in offline mode as per the two variants proposedas of now.
“The CBSE has proposed conducting exams between July 15 and August 26 and the result to be declared in September. The final decision will be taken on June 1,” said the official.
The CBSE has suggested either holding exams only for a few subjects or holding exams for 1.5 hours instead of three hours. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has given a deadline of May 25 to the States to put forward their concerns and suggestions pertaining to the conduct of Class 12 board exams.
While there has been an outrage on social media and other platforms from students, parents and others, including certain Opposition parties, ever since the Centre’s keenness to conduct the board exams came to the fore on Sunday, Ministry sources said there is likely to be consensus on holding the exams for 1.30 hours based on multiple choice questions and in a staggered manners where only 10 students per class room will be accommodated.
“The exams will be of 90 minutes duration instead of three hours and will be conducted in the same schools where students are enrolled. The questions will be objective and have a very short answer type. Students will have to appear in one language and three elective subjects,” said the official.
The CBSE in its proposal had also suggested that in plan B, students can be given an option of appearing for exams in a later stage too. This will mean that if a student misses an exam due to Covid related issue, they can appear for the boards about 15 days later.
Ministry officials said in the Sunday meeting chaired by Union Minister Rajnath Singh and attended Pokhriyal and State Education Secretaries there was a consensus for holding the exams by majority of States except for the concerns raised by Maharashtra, Delhi and Jharkhand.
Different State Governments are taking different decisions about their own board exams.
While most State Governments have already cancelled Class 10 Board exams, Uttar Pradesh has not yet taken a decision on either Class 10 or 12 exams. Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad Secretary Divya Kant Shukla said there is no decision to pass students without taking the exam. A decision is likely later this week. Being the largest State, UP has 5.6 million students writing the Class 10 and 12 examinations every year.
While Class 10 board exams are cancelled in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab the respective Governments have decided that the State Board exams will be held along with the CBSE Class 12 examinations schedules.
Telangana State Education board is also likely to conduct the Class 12 board examination between July and September, but Gujarat and West Bengal have said the examination will be conducted, once the pandemic is contained.
Maharashtra, which was the first to experience the dangers of second wave pandemic, cancelled the Class 10 while final decision for Class 12 is expected in a week’s time.
Other northeast States like Assam and Tripura have said the Board exams for Class 10 and 12 will be held 15 days after normalcy is restored in the region, post Covid-19. They have also mentioned the necessity to hold the examination.
