The Central Board of Secondary Education will decide the fate of its pending Class 10 and 12 board examinations by June 23. The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has extended its deadline for students to decide whether to write examinations or not to June 24, and will specify its alternative assessment option by June 22.
Ahead of the SC hearing, HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had held a meeting with Anita Karwal, secretary, school education, Manoj Ahuja, chairperson, CBSE and Vineet Joshi, director general, National Testing Agency on Tuesday. However, the meeting remained inconclusive.
According to a senior HRD official, “No decisions have been reached so far. However, by June 23 CBSE will be ready with further instructions as asked by the SC. There are two things that have emerged – a few states are unwilling to conduct the exams due to the increasing cases of the viral infection and within the Board the general opinion is that it doesn’t make much of a sense of delaying the exams to September or October.”
“Therefore, in such a scenario CBSE is left with the option of either making the exams optional or cancel them. At present the Board is thinking of cancelling the exams and awarding an average marks scored in the papers a student appeared to the one that remained unfulfilled. In case of Class X, the Board may also look at the option of scoring on the basis of the internal assessment,” said the official.
