The Maharastra state government on Monday decided to postpone state board exams for class 10th and 12th due to the rising number of COVID positive cases in the state. Maharashtra Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said, “We’ve postponed state board exams for class 10th and 12th. Class 12th exams will be held by end of May, while 10th standard exams will be in June. Fresh dates will be announced accordingly.”
The minister also added that the decision to postpone the exams was based on the consultations with various stakeholders such as students, teachers, parents, elected representatives from across parties, academicians, and tech giants. Ms Gaikwad thanked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for “his guidance,”
“During the consultations, various alternative assessment options were evaluated keeping the health, well-being and future of our students in mind. Postponing exams seemed to be the most pragmatic solution. We’ll also be writing to the CBSE, ICSE, IB, Cambridge boards, requesting them to reconsider their exams dates.”
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Shiv Sena have written separately to the union education ministry to develop a national consensus and possibly reschedule the Class 10 and 12 CBSE and other school board exams. Cabinet minister in Maharashtra Aditya Thackeray tweeted, “Yesterday, South Mumbai (MP) Arvind Sawant ji has written to Union Min, HRD for national consensus and central guidance on 10th/12th exams instead of various states taking different decisions that will affect student lives & careers for CBSE, ICSE, IB, GCSE & state boards.”
The state government had announced last week that all students in Class 9 and Class 11 will be promoted without taking exams and a similar decision was taken for the students of classes 1 to 8.
On Sunday, Maharashtra reported its highest-ever single-day spike of Coronavirus cases as the state added over 63,000 positive cases. With 63,294 new Covid-19 cases, the state now has 34,07,245 cases since the Covid-19 outbreak in the country. The Union Health Ministry on Monday said, “ten states – Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan account for 83.02 per cent of the new Covid-19 infections.”
Some parts of these state are undergoing partial lockdowns and night curfews.
Earlier this month, thousands of students from across the country had demanded that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) either cancel the board exams that are scheduled to be held in May or conduct them online. The board, however, refused saying adequate safety arrangements were being made for students who will be writing the exams.
Pearls – 13 April 2021