The Central Board of Secondary Education on Wednesday reiterated its decision to hold Class 10 and Class 12 examinations only for the 29 subjects which it had enumerated in a press release on April 1, amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Of these, 23 are Class 12 subjects, and exams for six Class 10 subjects will be held only in North East Delhi. In the rest of India, no further exams will be held for Class 10.
“Recently there has been a lot of speculation regarding 10th CBSE Board exams,” the board said in a tweet on Wednesday. “It is reiterated that the board’s decision to take board exams for 29 subjects of class 10 and 12, stands the same as mentioned in circular dated 1.4.20.”
CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi told India Today on Tuesday that while Class 10 results will be announced based on the exams already held, retests will be held for Class 12 at appropriate dates. “We are waiting for the lockdown to be lifted, as soon as this is done we can take the exams,” Tripathi said.
The nationwide lockdown, imposed on March 25 to combat the coronavirus, will end on May 3.
Tripathi added that the evaluation process for the exams already held has not yet begun, and will take around one-and-a-half months once it begins. He said the CBSE is in touch with the central government, and as soon as it sends an advisory, the exam papers will be evaluated while following social distancing guidelines.
“The reason parents do not need to panic is because this is the situation world over,” the CBSE secretary asserted. “If the educational session is postponed, it will be the same the world over.”
Union Human Resources Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had on Tuesday requested the CBSE and state boards to begin the evaluation process for the Class 10 and Class 12 exams. On April 21, the CBSE had denied rumours that these exams may be cancelled.
Tripathi said that decisions on holding competitive exams for medical and engineering streams, among others, can be taken only after the Class 10 and Class 12 exams have been conducted.
The CBSE secretary parried a question on what would happen if the lockdown continued after May 3, saying that the board requires 10 to 12 days to take the Class 10 and Class 12 exams. He said it was too early to decide what the board could do if the lockdown was extended.
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