No decision yet on exams for Class 12
{ AFTER CBSE MEET } MINISTER SEEKS STATES’ SUGGESTIONS
NEW DELHI: A high-level meet could not arrive at a decision on the pending Class 12 board exams on Sunday, with education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank seeking detailed suggestions from state governments by May 25 and asserting that “an informed, collaborative” final call will be taken at the earliest.
The virtual meeting was convened to decide on the Class 12 board exams and subsequent entrance examinations that were postponed due to the second wave of Covid-19.
After the deliberations, Nishank said, “The meeting was extremely fruitful as we received immensely valuable suggestions.
I have requested the state governments to send me their detailed suggestions by May 25.”
He said the government is committed to the “safety, security and future” of students.
“I thank all the Chief Ministers, Education Ministers and officers associated with the world’s largest education system for participating in the high-level meeting chaired by Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh ji. As envisioned by the Prime Minister, the meeting was extremely fruitful as we received immensely valuable suggestions. I have requested the State Governments to send me their detailed suggestions by May 25,” tweeted Pokhriyal.
“I am confident we will be able to arrive at an informed, collaborative decision regarding the Class 12th board exams and remove the uncertainty among students and parents’ minds by informing them of our final decision at the earliest. I want to reiterate that both students’ and teachers’ safety, security, and future are supremely important to us,” the union minister said.
A high-level meeting, chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh, was held on Sunday to discuss the conduct of CBSE exams for Class XII and entrance examinations for professional courses.
The education ministers and education secretaries of States and Union Territories, chairpersons of state examination boards and stakeholders were present
in the meeting. Union ministers Prakash Javadekar, Smriti Irani and Sanjay Dhotre also attended the meeting.
“The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education and CBSE are exploring options regarding conducting the examinations, keeping in mind the safety and security of the students and the teachers. The Department of Higher Education is also deliberating upon the finalization of the dates of examinations for institutions of higher learning,” Pokhriyal stated in his letter to the states and UTs on Saturday.
The letter further noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected various areas including the education sector, particularly the board exams and entrance exams.
Pokhriyal has also sought inputs from all the stakeholders - students, parents, teachers, and others through the microblogging site.
“Friends, I need “YOUR” valuable suggestions too. You can send them on my Twitter handle,” he said.
According to officials, the options proposed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as well as the feasibility to execute them were discussed at length during the meeting.
A large number of students and parents have been demanding cancellation of the board exams. The hashtag “cancel-board-exams” trended on Twitter as the meeting was underway.
“It was proposed that the board can conduct exams in present format for major subjects and the marking for remaining subjects can be done on basis of performance in the papers for which offline exams will be conducted. The board said the exams can be conducted using this option and increasing the number of centres to ensure social distancing,” a senior official said. “The other option that was proposed was changing the pattern of exam. If this option is chosen, the exams can be conducted in home schools of students, the duration can be reduced to 90 minutes rather than 3 hours and the questions can be objective type. The students can also be given an option to appear for any three of four subjects in this format,” he said. Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said his government was not in favour of the options being explored by CBSE to conduct the exams and that going ahead with the process without vaccinating students would prove to be a big mistake. “Delhi government is not in favour of these options. We cannot play with the safety of students just to fulfil our stubborn wishes. Conducting the examination by toying with students’ safety will prove to be a big mistake. There are over 1.5 crore Class-12 students across the country and 95 per cent of them are above the age of seventeen-and-a-half years,” he said at a press conference post the meeting. “The Centre should talk to experts if they can be given the Covishield or Covaxin vaccines. The Centre should also talk to Pfizer to explore vaccination for the Class 12 students. It is a must to vaccinate students, especially with experts indicating that the third wave of the coronavirus will be more dangerous for children,” he added.
The Tamil Nadu government has proposed conducting the exams after the Covid-19 situation subsides in the state. “Like other states, Tamil Nadu also wanted to conduct the Class 12 board exams as it plays an important role in deciding students’ career,” state school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said.
Karnataka primary and secondary education minister S Suresh Kumar said it’s important to conduct Class 12 exams in the interest of students.
The CBSE had on April 14 announced the cancellation of Class 10 exams and postponed Class 12 exams due to the surge in Covid-19 cases. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The April and May edition of the engineering entrance exam JEE-Mains were also postponed. The board exams, which are usually conducted in February-March every year, were scheduled to be held from May 4.
The CBSE had announced that a decision on the Class 12 board exams will be taken on or after June 1. Schools across the country were closed in March last year to contain the spread of Covid-19 ahead of a nationwide lockdown.