With the board exams pushed to May, many schools are planning to conduct additional physical classes and internal examinations
NEW DELHI, INDIA SEPTEMBER 22: Students of class 12th exit after appearing for CBSE's Compartment Board Exam at Ramjas School, in Pusa Road, on September 22, 2020 in New Delhi, India. As per the official data shared by CBSE, as many as 1,50,198 students from Class 10 and 87,651 students from Class 12 have been placed for compartment examinations.
Image: Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Just as the 2020 board examinations were affected by the coronavirus outbreak, this year’s board examinations too have been delayed due to the pandemic. While last year, some of the exams scheduled towards the end of March were cancelled, the government and Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) intent of holding physical examinations for classes 10 and 12 this year has pushed the exams to May. Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on December 31 announced that the CBSE class 10 and 12 board exams will be conducted between May 4, 2021 and June 10, 2021.
This will be the first time the board exams will be conducted in May. Every year the examinations are held between February and March. While the delay will also push college and university admission dates, it will give extra time to students to prepare better.
“Around 70 percent of India’s student base resides in rural areas where resources and access to technology are still very limited. This delay will particularly benefit such students who can now expect more in-class sessions in the coming months,” says Girish Kumar, principal, Apeejay School, Jalandhar.
While schools in several states like Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra (Pune and Nagpur), and Odisha have decided to reopen schools after a gap of several months while adhering to the COVID-19 guidelines, some private schools have opted not to reopen. “We had proposed resuming classes to parents of around 1,000 students from classes 9 to 12 but got a positive response from parents of only 30 students. Given the safety concerns, we have decided against it,” says Kumar.
Ashok Agarwal, president of the All India Parents Association, said that while parents welcome the decision of exams being scheduled for May, the board should further reduce the syllabus for both class 10 and 12 students. CBSE in July had rationed the syllabus by 30 percent. “Our suggestion is that the CBSE should further reduce the syllabus by 20 percent enabling students to take examinations on 50 percent of the syllabus only. It will reduce stress for students who weren’t able to attend classes at all this academic year.”