Coronavirus: CBSE Board Exam, JEE Main Postponed; 10 Things To Know

CBSE, yesterday, in an unprecedented but not surprising move, cancelled all board exams which were scheduled between March 19 and March 31. The board examinations have been cancelled for both classes 10 and 12. Not only board exams, but the Ministry of Human Resource Development asked all schools, universities, and other institutes to cancel all scheduled exams and entrance exams till March 31.

Here's a 10-pointer on coronavirus-effect on the ongoing and upcoming exams in the country:

1. CBSE, which was scheduled to conclude class 10 board exams on March 20 and class 12 board exams on March 30, will announce re-scheduled exam dates after March 31.

2. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also directed that all evaluation work related to board exams be stopped till March 31. Evaluation work will be resumed on April 1 unless otherwise informed by the board.

3. Apart from the exams which were on its regular schedule, CBSE has also postponed any exams for North-East Delhi which were scheduled during this period. All fresh dates would be announced after March 31.

4. Earlier, the board had allowed use of sanitizers and masks in the exam hall to ensure safety of students from the virus which is thought to be spread mainly from person-to-person.

5. Following the directive from the government, National Testing Agency (NTA) which had scheduled JEE Main exams in April, has also postponed the engineering entrance exam. The JEE Main exams were scheduled on April 5, 7, 9, and 11. The new dates for the exam will now be announced on March 31.

6. The delay in JEE Main schedule means there might be some delay in the conduct of JEE Advanced 2020 examination as well. The top 2,50,000 students in JEE Main exam become eligible for JEE Advanced. The ranks for JEE Main are drawn after both editions (January and April) exam are over.

7. There has been no effect on NEET UG 2020 schedule yet. The exam was scheduled in May and appears to be on schedule.

8. Meanwhile, several educational institutes have switched to online classes to complete the syllabus for the ongoing academic session.

9. The Union HRD Minister, Mr. Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', on Wednesday, announced that the ministry will launch e-classes on Swayam Prabha DTH channels for school students who are missing their classes because of coronavirus outbreak.

10. IITs have also come up with creative solutions to handle the situation created by coronavirus pandemic. A team of researchers in IIT Hyderabad have developed their own hand sanitizer for the institute community. Several IITs have taken to conducting classes online for students who would be worse affected since the classes have been suspended for the ongoing semester.

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