The pending board examinations for class 10 and 12, which were scheduled to take place from 1-15 July, now stand cancelled, told Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to Supreme Court today.
The decision came amid the outbreak of novel coronavirus in the country as well as the lockdown situation that was imposed to contain the virus spread.
The education board said that it would conduct the remaining exams when the conditions become conducive.
However, Class XII students can opt for exams to be conducted later, CBSE told the top court. The details of the same will release later.
But the same provision is not applicable for class X students. The class 10 board examinations will not have an option for re-examination later. The students of 10th standard will be assessed on basis of performance in last three exams, SC was told.
Delhi, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have conveyed inability to conduct the examinations, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta informed Supreme Court.
The apex court took note of Centre’s submission and asked CBSE to issue fresh notification clarifying details of Class XII board exams.
In addition to that, ICSE board also cancelled class 10 and 12 board exams. However, ICSE doesn’t agree to give option to students to write exam later, Mehta informed SC.
Earlier, CBSE had told the apex court that it would “very shortly” take appropriate decision on the issue raised in a plea which has sought quashing of the board’s notification for conducting remaining examinations of Class XII.
Raising concern over the safety of lakhs of students, the plea filed in the apex court has said that they might be exposed to COVID-19 infection if they have to appear in the examinations amid increase in number of cases of virus infection.
Moreover, most parents also demanded that they be scrapped the remaining board exams and declare the result by either calculating the average of tests already conducted or based on an internal assessment.
The board examinations in the country were postponed in March amid ongoing nationwide lockdown, which was imposed by the government on 25 March, 2020 in order to combat novel coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Since then, the HRD Ministry had been releasing orders and guidelines to conduct the remaining exams. The pending class 10 and 12 board exams were earlier decided to be conducted at 15,000 centres across the country instead of 3,000 centres planned earlier, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ announced earlier.
Apart from that, certain other states such as Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have cancelled the class X exams and decided to promote the candidates to the next level in view of the pandemic.
