CBSE Class 10, 12 boards 2021: Behind the decision of exam cancellation

The exams for Class 12 students has again been made directly proportion to the covid caseload and the board will be buying more time.

As the decision to postpone the board examination for Class 12 students and exam cancellation for Class 10 students was made official, some CBSE officials say they were not consulted before on this decision. Some of the members confirmed this to The IE and said that the decision was taken at a high-level meeting between Prime Minister Modi and top Education Ministry officials. The governing body, some CBSE officials claimed, has 34 members and this includes some government officials, heads of schools, and universities representatives. Four members from the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education have also been reported to be a part of the meeting.

However, as per a senior official among CBSE has confirmed that the board along with a private school teacher were not the part of official decision-making process. Apart from this, many have been questioning why the government could not reach this decision sooner. To be sure, the unprecedented rise in COVID-19 cases have put CBSE and Centre in a difficult position.

Citing a senior education official, the report said the board will have to determine some criteria of assessment for Class 10 students. However, the case for Class 12 students has again been made directly proportion to the covid caseload and the board will be buying more time. It is to note that even the school principals believe assessing Class 12 students can be quite a challenge. Rashmi Biswal, Principal, DAV School, Pushpanjali Enclave said that students have found a way to answer questions easily in the exams, this leads to an assessment which is not honest or foolproof.

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on December 31 last year announced that CBSE board examinations for Class 10 and Class 12 would take place between May 4 and June 10. But given the second COVID-19 wave, where daily average cases have crossed 2 lakh, maintaining safety among children becomes imperative. Meanwhile, teachers are concerned that assessing Class 10 students without exams is also not an easy task. A Delhi government school head asserted students who are in Class 10, have been attending online classes for a year now and in fact, teachers do not even know some students as they got a new set of students. Since online mode was the primary source of interaction, some even had attendance lower than 20-25 per cent and in this case, student assessment is hard.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the news took to Twitter and showed his agreement with the decision and said that the move comes as a big relief to 30 lakh students who were set to appear in the board examinations along with their parents and teachers.