Amidst a major dissent among the student community in India to cancel the long delayed CBSE Class 12 Board exams, the Board has clarified that no official decision has been taken yet in this regard. The CBSE Class 12 Board exams were recently postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in India. Reportedly, the Ministry of Education has stated that a decision will be taken on May 25, 2021 in this regard.
Earlier, a petition has been filed by advocate Mamta Sharma in the Supreme Court in favour of cancellation of the CBSE Class 12 board exams. The advocate was quoted saying that given the surge in COVID-19 casualties in the last few months, it is impossible to conduct the exam whether in the offline or online mode. Instead, the advocate reportedly plead to the SC for the CBSE Class 12 board results to be declared on the basis of objective methodology, a method, that has already been adopted by the CBSE for declaration of the Class 10 Board exams this year.
The CBSE Class 12 Board exams 2021 were reportedly scheduled to start from May 04, 2021 and continue till June 14, 2021. However, last month, the Board resorted to postponement of the exam as situations are not conducive to conduct offline exams amidst the pandemic.
The student community has already started expressing dissent against the conduct of the exam later in the second half of the year. Calls for cancellation of the exam are evident with Twitter flooding with posts tagged with #cancel12thboardexams2021. One of the imminent reasons is that, if the Boards are conducted in July-August 2021, and the results are released afterwards, then students may not get the chance to enroll in higher education in the current academic year.
The Board has however rejected all claims, stating that CBSE has not taken any decision regarding cancellation of the Class 12 Board exams this year. As per reports, candidates will be intimated about the revised exam dates at least 15 days in advance. The Ministry of Education has reportedly confirmed CBSE’s stance and as per latest developments, the Board may not wait till June 01, 2021 to decide on the fate of the CBSE Class 12 Board exams this year and a decision will be taken by May 25, 2021.
It may be noted that the CBSE has already cancelled the Class 10 board exams this year and resorted to objective criterion for evaluation of merit. Out of 100 marks carried by each subject in the CBSE Class 10 board, 20 marks will be attributed to Internal Assessment of students conducted by respective schools. The remaining 80 marks will be attributed to other exams/tests conducted by schools, assessments, project work etc.
