Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged the Centre to cancel CBSE exams, cautioning that holding them on offline basis (regular exam centres in school premises) could turn them into Covid-19 hotspots and lead to large scale spread of the pandemic, which could risk the lives of children and teachers.
The Board exams for Classes 10 and 12 are scheduled to commence from May 4.
Alternate methods such as online exams or other internal assessments should be explored for promoting children, Kejriwal said at a press conference, highlighting that Delhi has in the last 24 hours recorded 13,500 new cases, the highest ever daily spike since the beginning of the pandemic last year.
“6 lakh children in Delhi are going to write CBSE exams. Nearly 1 lakh teachers will be a part of it. These can become major hotspots leading to large scale spreading of Corona. Children’s lives and health is very important to us. I request Centre to cancel CBSE exams,” Kejriwal said.
It may be recalled that the Delhi Government had already asked schools, colleges in the national capital to remain closed considering the Covid-19 surge.
Last Friday, the Delhi government’s education department had notified that all offline academic activities of students of class 9 to 12 in schools have been discontinued till further orders. It’s not only students, even political leaders and actors have joined the chorus demanding postponement of Class 10,12 CBSE exams in the current pandemic times.