COVID-19 Impact: Telangana cancels Class XII exams, results to be on ‘pre-determined objective criteria’

The results will be declared on basis of “pre-determined objective criteria”, as per a statement from the Government of Telangana. (Representative Image)

The Telangana state government has on June 15 announced that it will cancel Class XII (Class 12) board exams for the academic year 2020-21, ANI reported.

The results will be declared on basis of “pre-determined objective criteria”, as per a statement from the Government of Telangana. Further, the Secretary, Board of Intermediate Examination has also issued orders to promote all Class XI (Class 11) students.

It was earlier reported that Telangana is likely to conduct the Class XII examination between July and September, but had yet to clarify the specifics.

The state had already promoted all students from Class 1 to Class 9 after the cancellation of exams due to the rise in COVID-19 cases in April. The state government had also announced summer vacations for schools and colleges in the state from April 27 to May 31.

"In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Telangana government has decided to promote 5,379,388 students studying in Classes 1 to 9 to the next class without examination," state Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy had said.

Later on June 8, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said that the Class 10 board exams stand cancelled and all students will be promoted to Class 11 without having to write any examination.

The Telangana Chief Minister’s Office had observed that it would be impossible to conduct board examinations amid the ongoing health risk due to the pandemic and all students will therefore be graded on the basis of the marks they received in their internal assessments.

The statement released by the CMO read: “CM K Chandrashekhar Rao has decided that 10th Class students will be promoted to the next class without any examination as it would not be possible to conduct the examinations due to the spread of coronavirus in the state.”