Ahead of the crucial Supreme Court hearing on Monday over a petition seeking cancellation of Class 12 Board exams for 2021, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council For The Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) are contemplating various options, including cancellation and adopting an alternative assessment route or going ahead with the exams in a shorter format keeping in mind the ‘mood’ of the majority of the States and UTs.
The ICSE board is said to have sought markings from its affiliated schools of students’ past performance in class 9,10 and 11, which is being perceived as a move to cancel the board exams and evaluate a student based on the last three years of performance in school. There was, however, no such thinking by the CBSE which has already given the go ahead for evaluating students for the cancelled class 10 exams on the basis of last two years’ academic performance.
“The CISCE is in the process of collating and collecting data from all our schools presenting candidates for class 12 examinations. You are, therefore, requested to provide the requested information for class 12 candidates,” CISCE Secretary Gerry Arathoon said in a letter to school principals marked as “strictly confidential” a copy of which is available with The Pioneer.
There are approximately 21,271 CBSE schools in India and 220 schools in 28 foreign countries affiliated to the CBSE. About 13 lakh CBSE students have registered for the class 12 board exams this year. There are about 2,400 ICSE affiliated schools and annually 2.5 lakh students take the class 12 exams.
The Ministry of Education is scheduled to review the suggestions of States and UTs during this week on the matter and then place it before the PMO for the final call. Sources in the Education Ministry said that with the pandemic situation still vulnerable there is a thought process within the government over cancellation of exams and marking students on basis of their previous results of class 9, 10 and 11 which will be later used as qualification score for undergraduate courses and other entrance tests like JEE, Medical etc.
The CISCE has asked its affiliated schools to submit data including the average of marks obtained by Class 12 students in class 11 and in the current session.
The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a PIL seeking directions to cancel the class 12 exams of the CBSE and ICSE amidst the surge in COVID-19 cases across the country. “Be optimistic. May be by Monday (May 31), some resolution will be there,” a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari told the petitioner in a hearing on Friday.
While the Centre will await the decision of the judiciary, a final decision has to be taken this week as even if there is a go ahead for conduct of examinations then the Board has mentioned that it would need 45 days notice period.
