The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) last month, decided to postpone the Class 12 Board Exams to a later date. According to the notification, the revised schedule shall be decided on June 01, 2021, after reviewing the pandemic situation. As suggested by the Education Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’. However, amid the rising number of COVId-19 cases in the country, CBSE Class 12 students are also demanding boards exams be cancelled. They recently took to Twitter and tweeted approximately 1 million tweets using the hashtag “#cancel12thboardexams2021”, to put their views forward.
CBSE was previously scheduled to conduct the Class 12 board exams 2021 from May 04, 2021, to June 14, 2021. Practical exams for Class 12 students were scheduled to begin in March 2021. However, due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, the central education board was compelled to postpone the exams for Class 12 students. The education board further clarified that the revised schedule shall be notified 15 days prior to the examination date.
The Class 10 board exams were cancelled and since then, the education board devised a formula to publish the mark sheets. However, they are yet to acknowledge or address any of the cancellation requests made by Class 12 students. Once the formula instructions were announced for Class 10 students, CBSE schools began organising the marks obtained by students in unit tests, half-yearly and pre-boards.
As per instructions, Class 10 students shall be evaluated out of a total of 100 marks for every subject. Out of the 100 marks, 20 marks shall be dedicated towards internal assessments while the remaining 80 marks shall be allotted to exams. As per the policy, 10 marks are allotted for unit tests, 30 marks for mid-term or half-yearly exams and 40 marks for pre-board exams. Subsequently, CBSE schools have been instructed to submit the internal assessment score on or before June 11, 2021.
Looking at the marking scheme devised for Class 10 students, the demand for cancellation of Class 12 board exams intensified. As per reports, the revised schedule shall be announced in the month of June 2021. Authorities further advised candidates to check the official website cbse.nic.in for important updates and queries.
Last year, CBSE decided to cancel the Class 12 board exams for the remaining years. Due to the current surge in coronavirus cases, the education board is likely the cancel the exams and devise similar criteria to publish the mark sheets as done in the case of Class 10 students. Cancelling exams seems like the most viable solution as any further postponement can cause a delay in the admission process. However, no concrete conclusion can be reached, as of now.
Various other central and state boards have deferred or cancelled their board exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CISCE had already begun the Class 12 boards exams from April 08, 2021 while the Class 10 exams were to begin from May 05, 2021. However, the board recently decided to postpone the Class 12 exams to a later date while cancelling the Class 10 exams. Admission process for Class 11 students was also scheduled to begin immediately.
Himachal Pradesh board exams for Class 10 and 12 were scheduled from April 13, 2021, but, stand postponed in light of the second wave of coronavirus. In Maharashtra however, Class 12 exams shall be held by end of May 2021 while Class 10 exams shall be organised in June 2021.
Similarly, Rajasthan state board authorities decided to postpone the Class 10 and 12 boards exams while promoting students of standards 8, 9 and 11 to the next level without any exams. Madhya Pradesh state education board was previously scheduled to begin the Class 12 and 10 board exams from April 30, 2021 and May 01, 2021, respectively. However, both exams have been deferred to a later date when the situation normalises.
