Central Government Scraps CBSE Board Class 12th Exams For This Year

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 or Coronavirus pandemic has affected every individual throughout the globe.

The first case of this virus was found in January 2020, in the state of Kerala.

The entire nation had gone into a complete lockdown a number of times, in order to reduce the number of cases.

The education system has shifted into an online mode, due to this virus. At this present moment, we are dealing with the second wave of this virus, which has unfortunately not been a bearer of any good news.

This is one of the main reasons why the 10th class board exams have been cancelled. 

There was initially a lot of ambiguity regarding the board exams for Class 12th, as they were being postponed again and again. This resulted in built up of anxiety among the students and teachers which was sought to be put to an end by this decision.

WHAT DOES THE NEW DECISION SAY

A meeting chaired by the honourable prime minister, decided that the board exams for Class 12th should be cancelled once and for all, for this particular year.

This meeting had been conducted in the first place, following a petition which had been filed before the honourable Supreme Court of our nation, in order to cancel the board exams for class 12th amid the second wave of the pandemic. 

This plea had been filed by Mamta Sharma, who is a lawyer based in Delhi. She had urged the court,that the examination should be scraped off for this year, and the methodology which was used in the previous year to mark the students, must be adopted. 

She stated that the examination boards do agree with the severity of the situation that we are in, as they have cancelled the board exams for Class 10th, and they should not take it lightly and keep postponing the board exams of Class 12th. 

She cited the case of ‘Amit Bathla V. CBSE’ which had been filed the previous year, and as per the judgement the respondents were asked to calculate the marks on the basis of earlier assessment of the students.

It was in the hearing, of the Supreme Court that the Respected Attorney General Mr. K.K. Venugopal, had announced that the decision would be taken within a period of two days.

The central government, on the 1st day of June announced that the board exams for Class 12th will be scraped off for 2021. The Prime Minister has ordered that a well defined criteria must be adopted for the analysis, and in a time bound manner. 

The decision has also stated that, if in case a student wishes to give the exams when the situation will improve, they will have all the rights to do so.

HOW WILL IT IMPACT THE STUDENTS

This new decision has been receiving a lot of mixed reactions from various ends, be it the students, or their parents or even the experts.

While there is no denying to the fact, that we are in the middle of a pandemic and conducting these exams can end up in worsening the whole situation, which is something we definitely cannot afford at this point of time.

Education does hold a lot of importance in an individual’s life, but there can be no education if there is no life in the first place. 

This decision might make the entrance into colleges a tougher job, not just for the students but also for the institutions.

There are plenty of prestigious institutions in our country, which grant admissions on the basis of merit, and almost every student works extremely hard to get into them. 

Many experts have been demanding that the grading should be done on the basis of either internal assessments or the earlier assessments of the students. 

This decision can have a great impact in the way admissions take place for this particular year.

While this happens, it is very crucial that a common methodology is adopted, which is free in its nature and ensures that every student gets an equal chance to apply for colleges they want an admission into.

The future of no student shall be put at stake, and so a method needs to be derived and strictly followed to ensure that students don’t waste their time or efforts, and the pandemic does not stand as a roadblock in the path of their education.

Do you think the Central Government was right in making this decision? What ways can be adopted by which we can find a concrete solution to this issue?