Andhra Pradesh (AP) government are insistent on conducting board exams for intermediate students, even while boards across the country have cancelled their exams. While the Supreme Court (SC) will be hearing the matter in detail today, the state government has already submitted its reasoning for going ahead with the exams.
The number of students who are enrolled in the state for inter 1st year (i.e. class 11) are 5,12,959, and that for inter 2nd year (class 12) are 5,19,510. With this, the number of students who will sit for the board exams in the state will be to the tune of 10.32 lakh. A similar situation is in Karnataka, where SOPs have been reportedly released for SSLC exams.
No reliable alternative in the state
The logic given by AP govt to conduct inter exams is that there is no alternative route. They have said, in the discourse, that grades are awarded in place of marks in class 10 exams in AP. Also, there is no check on internal exams held by the schools and thus formulating class 12 results based on internals will not be accurate.
Another reason provided is that importance of class 12 in the state level entrance exam EAPCET (Engineering, Agriculture and Pharmacy Common Entrance Test – previously known as EAMCET), wherein 25% weightage is given to 12th marks for rank.
Precautions that the board will take to hold AP inter exams 2021
The government has proposed a set of precautions, that they will take in order to hold the board exams safely.
- Board exams will be held on alternate days – one day for class 11th, and second day for class 12th, and so on.
- First, second year students will have to appear in 5-6 subjects (5 for Arts students, and 6 for science). Thus each student will go to exam center for 5-6 days only.
- The seating arrangement will be such that only 15-16 students will sit in a room. Room size will be 25 x 25 feet at least.
- There will be social distancing in the seating arrangement – at least 5 feet between each student.
- Exam centers will be sanitized on a regular basis.
- There will be masks, sanitizers, thermal scanners in each center.
- Students and teachers’ temperature will be checked before entering centers.
- Seating arrangements will be displayed at different places so that people do not crowd at single place to check them.
In the previous hearing, the Supreme Court said that the state needs to take a decision soon, and cannot keep students hanging. Also, that if there is any fatality, the state will be responsible.
