Amidst a surge in Covid19 cases, the Centre has decided to postpone the CBSE board exams of class 12th and cancel exams of class 10th. The decision comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday noon held a meeting with Union Education Minister, Secretary and senior officials on the contentious issue of holding CBSE exams during the current second wave of Coronavirus pandemic.

Now the board exams of class 12th to be held from May 4th to June 14th, 2021 have been postponed. The situation will be reviewed on June 1 by the board and the details will be shared subsequently. A notice of at least 15 days will be given before the start of the examinations. Meanwhile, the centre has decided to cancel the class 10th exams. The results will be prepared on the basis of an objective criterion to be developed by the Board.

“Any candidate who is not satisfied with the marks allocated to him/her on this basis will be given an opportunity to sit in an exam as and when the conditions are conducive to hold the exams,” the Ministry of Education said in a statement.

The decision on CBSE board exams is crucial as there was widespread demand from politicians, students and film actors that CBSE Board exams should be cancelled and that lives of children and teachers should not be put to risk in these pandemic times, official sources said.

In view of the rising Covid19 cases in the national capital, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Tuesday appealed to the Centre to cancel CBSE exams and examine adoption of alternate methods such as online exams to assess the students.

Meanwhile, India reported more than 1.8 lakh new Covid19 cases on Wednesday at 1,84,372 with 1027 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry data showed. This was much higher than the daily count of 1,61,738 reported as of Tuesday morning.

The cumulative number of Covid cases on Wednesday till 8:00 AM in the morning stood at 1,38,73,825. Maharashtra reported the highest number of Covid cases at 60212 with 281 deaths in the last 24 hours, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 17,963, Chattisgarh at 15,121 and Delhi at 13,468.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday that Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Haryana and Kerala continued to report a consistent upsurge in Covid cases.

The cumulative number of vaccines administered till 8:00 am on Wednesday stood at 11,11,79,578 with 26,46,528 jabs given in the last 24 hours in the morning. As States report short supplies of the Covid 19 vaccine, the Centre yesterday denied any shortage and urged States to be better planned, and review the availability of vaccines at cold-chains and allocate as required to specific areas.

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