Clamour to cancel CBSE Board Exams grows; Here’s a list of boards that postponed 10th, 12th exams

The demand to cancel CBSE Board exams 2021 grows louder with more politicians and celebrities joining the students in view of an unprecedented rise in COVID-19 cases in the country. Over one lakh students of classes 10 and 12 have signed petitions urging the government to either cancel board exams scheduled to be held in May or conduct them in online mode. However, no such decision has been taken in this regard yet even as students and parents wait for an official announcement soon.

Usually, CBSE practical exams are conducted in January and written exams begin in February and conclude in March. However, the exams were delayed and are scheduled to be held in May-June in view of the pandemic. Meanwhile, many states have already announced postponement of board exams amid the worsening coronavirus situation.

Here is a list of state boards that have postponed exams for Classes 10th and 12th this year:

Maharashtra

The Maharashtra government postponed the state board exams of Classes 10 and 12, which were scheduled to be held later this month, in view of a steep rise in COVID-19 cases in the state. The board exams of Class 12 were to begin from April 23 and of Class 10 from April 30. “Given the current COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra, we’ve postponed state board exams for class 10th & 12th. The present circumstances are not conducive for holding exams. Your health is our priority,” state School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said.

“Keeping in mind the schedule of entrance exams for professional courses, class 12th exams will be held by end of May, while 10th standard exams will be in June,” she said in a series of tweets. The health situation was being closely monitored and fresh dates for the postponed exams would be announced soon, Gaikwad said. “We’ll also be writing to the CBSE, ICSE, IB, Cambridge boards, requesting them to reconsider their exams dates,” she added.

Uttar Pradesh

The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) has postponed the UP Boards Class 10, 12 Board Exam 2021, which was scheduled to be held from April 21. However, it has not done so due to rising COVID cases, but in the wake of UP Gram Panchayat Polls in stead. UPMSP has also issued revised exam dates for the upcoming Board Exam 2021. As per the revised date sheet, the class 10th and 12th examinations will now start from May 8 and conclude on May 28, 2021. As many as 56 lakh students have registered this year to appear in the high school and intermediate examinations of Uttar Pradesh Board, despite the impact of COVID-19 on the education in schools.

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh government has extended exam dates of the MP Board class 10 and 12 exams, which were scheduled from April 30. School education department will issue fres dates of exam in the next couple of days, according to a TOI report. Talking to TOI, school education minister Parmar said that due to the rising corona infection in Madhya Pradesh, it has been decided to extend the exam dates. Class 1 to 8 to be closed till June 15, 2021. “Ongoing situation does not allow us to organise the exam on scheduled dates. We will issue fresh dates in the next few days,” said Parmar. He added that practical exam dates have also been extended.

Chhattisgarh

The Chhattisgarh Board Exam Class 10 that was originally scheduled from April 15 to May 1, 2021, has been officially announced to be cancelled. The CGBSE, however, has stated that the new dates of Class 10 exams are being worked upon and will be disclosed later. The decision was taken after seeing the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in the past few days. However, the CGBSE hasn’t updated about the Class 12 board examination yet and it is assumed to stick to the same schedule, i.e., May 3 to May 24, 2021, until further notice. Since the Class 10 board exams had only three days to go until commencement amid the rising cases, the decision to postpone them had to be taken, whereas class 12 students still have one month to go and only time will tell how situation remains then.

Meanwhile, some states like Rajasthan, Kerala and Karnataka have announced to carry forward with the original schedule of the state board exams despite the surge in COVID-19 cases almost everywhere.