Class 10, 12 students of CBSE should be promoted on basis of internal assessment: Delhi govt tells HRD minister

NEW DELHI: It is not feasible now to conduct class 10 and 12 board exams which are pending due to the lockdown imposed to curb the COVID-19 spread, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia suggested Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Tuesday.

He made the recommendations during a meeting of state education ministers chaired by the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister.

"Due to the need of social distancing, it will not be feasible to conduct remaining exams for class 10 and 12 students even in May-June. Having exam thereafter will delay the next academic cycle heavily. Other states have their own state boards but Delhi has CBSE as its board. Most students of CBSE come from Delhi," Sisodia said.

"I appealed to the HRD minister that CBSE be asked to take a similar route for promoting students as it proposed for class 9 and 11. In these uncertain times, I don't know if we would be able to conduct examinations again, so on the basis of same formula like internal assessments and papers already conducted, students of class 10 and 12 too should be evaluated.

"This will help us not waste our students'' time and not push their academic cycles further and get their studies hampered," he added.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi's education minister, suggested that "the curriculum for the next academic session should reduced by 30 per cent and competitive exams like JEE, NEET be conducted on the basis of reduced syllabus".

He put forward the Delhi government's demand of airtime on Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) for broadcasting of on-air classes by teachers of its schools.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16 when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Later, a nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which has now been extended till May 3.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had earlier this month announced that it will be conducting pending board exams for only 29 subjects, which are crucial for promotion and admission in undergraduate programmes.

However, there is no clarity on when exams will be conducted even as the HRD Ministry has assured that students will be given at least a 10-day notice before the conduct of exams.

Responding to a question of conducting the remaining board exams, Pokhriyal had told parents in an interaction on Monday that the pending exams will be conducted at the first possible opportunity.