Board exams exempted from lockdown steps

Board exams exempted from lockdown steps

Home Ministry says students, teachers must compulsorily wear masks; thermal screening should be done at the centres

21/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

Long hiatus: Students were in the middle of the Board exams when the lockdown was imposed.Sushil Kumar Verma

The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday exempted the pending Class 10 and 12 examinations to be conducted by the State and Central Boards from the lockdown. Students and teachers will have to wear masks compulsorily, and there should be provision for thermal screening and sanitisers at all examination centres.

Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted on Wednesday, “Taking into consideration the academic interest of large number of students, it has been decided to grant exemption from the lockdown measures to conduct Board examination for classes 10th & 12th, with few conditions like social distancing, face mask etc, for their safety.”

Several State Boards and the Central Board of Secondary Education were about to start, or were in the middle of, the examinations when the lockdown was imposed. The CBSE recently released the date sheet of the remaining 29 papers of Classes 10 and 12 to be held from July 1 to July 15.

Kerala postponement

Earlier this week, the Kerala government postponed the Secondary School Leaving Certificate, higher secondary and vocational higher secondary examinations to be held in the last week of May as the lockdown was extended.

Under the fresh lockdown measures guidelines issued by the Ministry under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 on May 17, opening of schools has been prohibited.

“Requests have been received from the State governments and the CBSE for conducting the Board examinations and the matter has been examined in the Ministry of Home Affairs. Taking into consideration the academic interest of large number of students, it has been decided to grant exemption from the lockdown measures to conduct Board examinations for Classes X and XII,” a letter by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to all States said.

The Ministry said examination schedules should be staggered and “special buses may be arranged by the States and the Union Territories for transportation of students to the examination centres.”

Admit cards

Asked how the students living in containment zones will be allowed to take the examinations, a senior Ministry official said, “They should be allowed with their admit card. Earlier also students living in curfew-hit areas have been allowed on the basis of admit cards.”

The official said that in case a student had high temperature on the day of examination, there were provisions for such students to appear for exams.