Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) announced on April 15, 2021, that the Class 10 board exams for the remaining subjects have been cancelled. Furthermore, the Class 12 board exams have been postponed to a later date. The new exam schedule shall be decided after reviewing the situation a month later. It was due to the rising cases of COVID-19 that the decision was taken to cancel/postpone the exams. This decision comes two days after CBSE announced the cancellation of Class 10 boards exams and the postponement of Class 12 exams.
The Lieutenant General (LG) of J&k, Manoj Sinha took to his official Twitter account of April 15, 2021, to announce the decisions taken regarding the impending exams. According to the announcement, the current Class 10 exams for the remaining subjects have been cancelled. Furthermore, students shall be promoted to Class 11 shall be done based on their performance in the remaining subjects. Exams for these subjects have already been conducted by JKBOSE. Internal assessment marks shall also be taken into consideration.
LG of J&K also announced the postponement of Class 12 board exams in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The date is yet to be declared by the authorities. A new examination schedule shall be decided based on the prevailing COVID-19 conditions in the next month.
Currently, India is experiencing the second wave of COVID-19. The increasing number of cases in the country is forcing central and state educational boards to postpone boards exams and final exams for undergraduate students. Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have decided to either postpone or cancel board exams for Class 10 and 12.
Various Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) are also rescheduling their exams in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jammu university recently decided to postpone all its exams till April 20, 2021 except for courses like MBBS, BDS and BAMS. Students and parents across the country are requesting the education boards to postpone or cancel board exams due to the difficulties created by the pandemic.
Health Ministry on April 15, 2021 postponed the NEET PG 2021 examination. They are also expected to release the revised schedule for NEET UG 2021. At the same time, National Testing Agency (NTA) is expected to take a decision about conducting the JEE Main 2021 April session. The third cycle of engineering exam is scheduled on April 27, 28, 29 and 30, 2021.
States like Karnataka and Kerala have given a firm decision to conduct the board exams as per the decided schedule. However, CISCE and the remaining states are yet to make a firm announcement regarding the 2021 board examination.