Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today wrote to Union education minister saying that "it would be extremely difficult to conduct" the remaining CBSE exams citing the spike in COVID-19 cases and high number of containment zones in the city. Mr Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, asked Human Resource Development Minister (HRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal `Nishank' to use the school based internal assessments which includes project work, periodic tests and term exams for declaring the CBSE results.
Mr Sisodia's letter came on a day the Supreme Court asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to examine if remaining board papers can be scrapped and marks allotted to students on the basis of internal assessment.
The same demand was earlier communicated by the Maharashtra government to the HRD Ministry.
Mr Sisodia had raised this issue during a video conference held by the HRD minister with the state education ministers on April 28, 2020.
“I hope you would agree with me that the board exams, particularly those of Class 12 are a high stake exam for children. Hence, subjecting them to take this exam in such an uncertain and anxiety prone situation would not be fair to them,” he wrote to Mr Nishank.
In the context of Delhi, Mr Sisodia detailed various reasons for not conducting the CBSE exams from July 1 to 15.
“During the last one week, the daily number of cases getting COVID-19 positive has been rising and the total number of confirmed cases now stands at 44,688 (as on June 16, 2020). This is likely to rise to 5.5 lakh by July 31, 2020. In such a situation, if a candidate or someone in the family tests positive, he/she will have to skip the exam causing further distress,” he wrote.
“Currently, there are 242 containment zones in Delhi which will rise further. Though, as per the current plan of CBSE, a school in this zone will not be used as exam center but there is no clarity on how a child from this zone will come out to take the exam,” he added.
At present, he also said, 251 government school buildings are being used as dry ration distribution centers, 33 schools are serving as hunger relief centers, 39 as shelter home, 10 as transit migrant camp and 10 as quarantine centers.
“These schools will not be in a position to conduct exam from July 1, 2020. Holding exams in the same building where there would be hundreds of COVID patients would be a serious risk.
“In such a situation, using school buildings between July 1-15, 2020 and ensuring that all eligible students take their exam may be extremely difficult. Therefore, I once again request you to remove any further uncertainty and declare that the exams in 29 subjects proposed to be conducted in July will not be conducted at all. For the results in these subjects, CBSE may rely upon the previous school based internal assessments which includes project work, periodic tests, term exam, etc.,” he wrote.
The CICSE board has already announced that its class 10 and 12 students can choose not to appear for pending board exams and be marked as per their performance in pre-board exams or internal assessment.
Universities and schools across the country have been shut since March 16, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as part of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
A nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day. While the government has eased several restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.
(With PTI Inputs)
