In a relief to thousands of Class 10 and 12 students of the CBSE and ICSE boards in Maharashtra, the state government has written to heads of these boards requesting them not to conduct exams in July as per the schedule and push them further or to mark students on the basis of their internal evaluation for the entire year.
In a letter sent to the boards yesterday, the government has said that in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis in the state, students would find it difficult to travel to their centres and the conduct of examinations would mean risking the health of several students. It has thus stated that it would not be able to permit the boards to conduct the exams in the state as there is too much risk involved. The boards have been asked to consider one of the two options. One, to conduct exams at a later date after the situation improves or to mark students on the basis of their performance in the internal assessments.
On May 22, ICSE re-scheduled papers which were earlier set to be held between March 19 and March 31, 2020. While 8 papers of ISC(Class 12) have been rescheduled, 6 papers of ICSE(Class 10) have been pushed further. As per the board’s revised schedule, the papers for ICSE would now be held between July 2 and 12 while ISC exams would be held between July 1 and 14. Similarly, CBSE announced that all the remaining papers would be conducted between July 1 and July 15.
An official from the ICSE board said that cancellation of exams might not be possible considering that too many papers are left. “We have already told students in a circular released last month that in a situation wherein they cannot write the exam, they can send a representation through the school and the board would allow them to appear for the exam at the time of compartmental exams conducted at a later date. If internal exam marks are considered, many parents would object to it again,” said a senior official from the board.
The government has asked both the boards to provide data of students who have appeared for both-Class 10 and 12 exams and would conduct a virtual meeting with the heads of both the boards on Saturday, June 6. The education department has said that it would plan upcoming first year junior college admissions depending on the decision of the two boards. Earlier, the SSC board and the IGCSE board had cancelled their remaining exams owing to Covid-19.
