Delhi Government Disapproves CBSE Exploring Options to Conduct Class 12 Exams

New Delhi:

The Delhi government opposes the CBSE exploring options for conducting the Class 12 board exams, and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Sunday that proceeding with the process without vaccinating the students would be a major mistake. 

He made the remarks at a high-level meeting called by the Ministry of Education to discuss the fate of the pending Class 12 board exams and subsequent entrance exams, which had been postponed due to the second wave of COVID-19. 

At the conference, two alternatives were discussed. The first was to hold exams in the current format for the main subjects and grade the rest of the subjects based on how well they performed on these articles.

"The second was having the exams in the students' home schools, reducing the duration and changing the exam pattern. The Delhi government is not in favour of these options. We cannot play with the safety of students just to fulfill our stubborn wishes," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader told a press conference.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi's education minister, said that while the educational system has its own set of constraints, they can be ignored in severe circumstances.

"Conducting the examination by toying with students' safety will prove to be a big mistake. First vaccine, then exams. There are over 1.5 crore, Class-12 students, across the country and 95 per cent of them are above the age of seventeen-and-a-half years. The Centre should talk to experts if they can be given the Covishield or Covaxin vaccines. The Centre should also talk to Pfizer to explore vaccination for the Class 12 students. It is a must to vaccinate students, especially with experts indicating that the third wave of the coronavirus will be more dangerous for children," he added.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh presided over the conference. Smriti Irani, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, and Prakash Javadekar, the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, attended the meeting, as did education ministers and secretaries from various states and union territories.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared on April 14 that the Class 10 exams would be cancelled and the Class 12 exams would be postponed due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 incidents.

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