On May 25, state governments will submit their suggestions to the Centre on holding the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class XII board exams, 2021.
These exams were originally scheduled to be held between May and June 14 but were postponed amidst a spike in COVID-19 cases due to the second wave.
While the Ministry of Education is in favour of holding examinations, the reaction of state governments has been mixed.
A hybrid model with phone-based oral examinations has been proposed by various states.
It is likely that the central government will take a final decision on the CBSE exam dates.
The board exam
On April 14, the Ministry of Education announced that the CBSE Class X board exams had been cancelled while Class XII board papers were postponed.
This is after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting with the Ministry of Education to decide on this matter.
Meanwhile, advocate Mamata Sharma has filed a plea asking for cancellation of the Class XII board exams, 2021.
She has requested the Supreme Court to issue directions to the CBSE for declaring the results based on past assessment.
In her petition, Sharma said that the Class XII examination was not feasible because of the COVID situation. She also added that any delay in the declaration of results would hamper students’ chances of applying to foreign universities.
A high-level meeting, chaired by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, was held on May 23 to decide on this matter.
Among the others present were Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar, apart from the Union Minister for Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
However, a decision proved to be elusive due to lack of consensus on the matter.
"We will be able to arrive at an informed, collaborative decision regarding Class XII Board exams and remove uncertainty among students and parents by informing them of our decision at the earliest. Both students' and teachers' safety are supremely important to us," Pokhriyal said later.
Every year, close to 1.2 million students appear for CBSE Class XII examinations across the country.
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