Students, parents fret over CBSE exam dates

NEWDELHI/CHANDIGARH: A day after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) released the schedule for the Class 12 board examinations, several students, parents and teachers expressed dissatisfaction and called for changes in the date-sheet.

CBSE officials, however, said no tweaks were being considered.

The primary cause for concern was that the history exam has been scheduled on March 20, followed by mathematics on March

21, with no gap for students studying both subjects — possible under relaxed norms that no longer restrict students to traditional science, humanities or commerce streams.

There were also worries that the Joint Entrance Exam for IITs and other technical institutions is scheduled for April 8, a day before the CBSE’s physical education exam. Students also complained that three exams were scheduled without break from April 5 to 7 — psychology, political science and legal studies. These concerns were expressed by students from across the country on social media and by several teachers and principals that HT spoke to.

Pryas Jain, a student of Class 12 (medical) at The British School, Chandigarh, said: “The date sheet is not balanced as there is only one day before physics to prepare but 13 for biology. The exams should have been up to March 27. We will not have much time to prepare for NEET which is scheduled on May 6.”

Nikhil Mehta, a student of St John’s High School, Sector 26, said, “Under the present date sheet, I won’t have any time left to prepare for JEE Mains after the board exam.”

This year, the pen-paper mode of JEE Mains (offline mode) will be held on April 8, while the exam for the online mode will be held on April 15 and 16.

But CBSE officials contended that the schedule was decided after taking a number of factors, including competitive exams, into consideration.

“There are around 200 subjects out of which students can have any combination. Students have such subject combination that science students take up one from the humanities and commerce subjects and vice-versa. No matter how much we try, some subjects might not get as many gap days as others,” said a CBSE official, who asked not to be named.

Arvind Goyal, a tutor who trains students for competitive exams, said, “NEET aspirants should devote around five days of the 13-day break given for biology to prepare for boards, and must use the remaining days to revise chapters from Class 11 so that they are prepared for NEET too. The same needs to be done during the break before the physical education exam.”