Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a meeting with Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and other top officials to discuss the Class 10 and 12 board exams that are scheduled to held in May. This comes after the nationwide calls including those from opposition leaders, Bollywood actors and students and their parents to cancel the physical examination amid the spike in daily covid-19 cases. The meeting will take place at noon.
As per the current schedule, the Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE) will hold Class 10 and 12 board exams from May 4 to June 7. The exams would be in the “offline-written mode”, the CBSE said in February. Notably, the board had ruled out the possibility of conducting exams in online mode as the number of daily cases around that time had dipped below 10k. However, in the last four weeks, the daily number of cases have spiraled with the daily number of cases being reported above 1 lakh for the past one week.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are among those who have constantly urged the central government to cancel the exams and not risk children’s lives amid this unprecedented times.
Arvind Kejriwal, pointing to the alarming rise in virus cases in Delhi, said on Tuesday: “Six lakh students in the city will appear for board exams. One lakh teachers will be on duty. Conducting board exams can lead to largescale spread of coronavirus… alternative methods of assessment can be explored. Students can be promoted on basis of either online exams or internal assessment. The board exams should be cancelled.”
India reported 1,84,372 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, setting another grim one-day record, taking the overall tally to 13,87,825 on Wednesday, according to the data issued by the Union Health Ministry.
