CBSE Board Exam 2021: COVID-19 delays heighten anxiety of students taking board exams

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Ranjana Tripathy, a 17-year-old CBSE student from Mumbai, has seen her anxiety levels shoot up over the past couple of weeks. She will appear for her Class XII board exams this year but there is still clarity about the timetable.

The crucial, school-leaving examination, which has a strong bearing on a student’s future, was scheduled to begin from May 4. However, with the second wave of COVID-19 raging across the country, it was decided in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the CBSE Class XII exams will be postponed while that of Class X will be cancelled.

"I am planning to apply for an animation course in New Zealand and the application deadline is July. If the exams keep getting postponed like this, what do we do?" she asked.

Every year, close to 1.5 million students write the CBSE Class 12 board examinations and 1.8 million students appear for the Class 10 board examinations.

However, considering the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases across the country, parents and students are worried about the threat of the virus spreading through close contact in examination halls.

Considering the nature of the exams, the education ministry has ruled out online exams as an option.

Maharashtra has postponed its SSC (Class X) and HSC (Class XII) exams that were scheduled to begin from April 29 and April 23 respectively.

The state's school education minister Varsha Gaikwad announced on April 12 that keeping in mind the schedule of entrance exams for professional courses, the Class XII board examination will be held by end of May 2021, while Class X board exams will be in June 2021. The detailed schedule is yet to be released.

Following this, students and parents’ associations from across Maharashtra and other states have written to the education ministry seeking a postponement of CBSE, ICSE/ISC board exams in the wake of the second wave of COVID-19.

State chief ministers including Maharashtra's Uddhav Thackeray and Punjab CM Amarinder Singh have written to PM Modi seeking postponement of the board exams.

On April 13, India saw 1,84,372 reported positive COVID-19 cases and 1,027 deaths. This has pushed the total tally to 13.9 million cases with 1,72,085 deaths.

Last year’s lockdowns had already delayed the academic calendar of 2020-21. Internet connectivity needed for online lessons gave the deprived sections a big disadvantage.

Sarath Bhaskar, a social service worker who runs a mobile education initiative in a few districts of Tamil Nadu told Moneycontrol that the biggest challenge has been access to technology and devices.

"The government announces online lessons across schools. But it did not take into consideration the plight of millions of students across India who don't have smartphones or laptops to study. What do they do? Their scores in board exams will decide their future and career prospects," he said.

Sudden changes in local restrictions also created confusion.

For instance, schools in Haryana and Andhra Pradesh that initially resumed special physical classes for Class X, XII students in November 2020 had to revert to online classes after students and staff started testing positive for the virus.

This led to sudden breaks in academic continuity for students appearing for the board exams.

Riyaaz Khan, a Class XII student in a CBSE school in Hyderabad has plans to apply for a hospitality course in Europe. The delays can derail his plans.

"Why can't the authorities conduct exams online? At least our higher education plans wouldn't be impacted if that is done. CBSE needs to take our concerns into account," he said.

Colleges across India had taken the online proctoring mode to conduct examinations in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Students want schools to adopt a similar practice.

The CBSE and the Education Ministry had sought feedback from students, schools and teachers on conducting the board examinations in 2021 amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2020, the CBSE was among the education boards that had cancelled examinations for the remaining Class 12 papers in the wake of the pandemic. The exams were postponed in March once the lockdown was announced to contain the coronavirus