Meeting Concluded with no consensus: The meeting between several high-profile ministers of the Narendra Modi government to decide on conducting class 12 board exams was over without any consensus. The government had proposed two options to hold class 12 board exams. The first option was to hold exams for only limited subjects and two to hold exams for all subjects but reduce the time for each exam from 3 hours to 1.5 hours and change questions to MCQ and short questions type only.
Some states against exams: Several states, however, had demanded a third option – alternative assessment. Those in the frontline of demanding alternative assessment and no exams for 12th students were the Maharashtra and Delhi government. Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said that the Delhi government is against holding exams. Sisodia said that its time to “think like a parent”. He demanded that students should be given vaccination, however, India currently does not have a vaccine policy for those younger than 18 years of age.
Varsha Gaikwad, who heads the School Education department for Maharashtra, said, “Since most professional courses hold entrance exams for admissions, many experts are of the view that it is possible to evaluate the performance of a class 12th student based on a retroactive assessment model.”
Some states also demand to give students options of appearing for exams at a later stage and declaring it a zero exam year and assess students based on internal marking with the option of having exams, at a later stage, for those who will not be satisfied with assessment.
Some States on-board for offline Exams: Some states including Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh were all set to conduct the exams. If sources are to be believed, the states which considered class 12 board exams as essential were in majority.
UP deputy education minister Dinesh Sharma who also holds the education portfolio, for instance, said that the UPMSP is ready to hold exams and preparations have been done to ensure students will not face any difficulty during the exams.
In the meantime, Chhattisgarh Board had announced that it will conduct its exams offline, however, CGBSE adopted a unique way. It allowed students to take exams from home. The board issued exam dates and exams were to conclude in record-time.
Rest states who were in the agreement had said that they can consider holding exams around September or whenever the cases start to recede.
Rajnath Singh Concludes meeting, hints at discussion with PMO: Union Minister of Defence, who was chairing the meeting, had concluded the meet by saying, “priority will be given to conducting all exams amid safety.” While this highlighted that the meet had inclined towards holding exams. A confirmation was still awaited.
Sources had informed that Singh concluded the meeting by saying that the demand for vaccination will be considered with the concerned ministry. He also said, as per sources, that the feedback received from states will be shared with ‘higher ups’. Sources suggested that PMO will be consulted.
Suggestions Sought from States: To bring everyone on board, the Minister of Education had sought detailed suggestions and ideas from all states, especially those who were not on board. These states have been asked to submit their suggestions by May 25.
Pokhriyal issued an official statement, said the meeting was “fruitful”. “I’m confident we will be able to arrive at an informed, collaborative decision regarding the Class 12th board exams and remove the uncertainty among student’s and parent’s minds by informing them of our final decision at the earliest,” the Union Education Minister said.
Opposition against Holding of Exams: The meeting which started at 11:30 am had concluded at about 3:30 pm. The opposition said that it is against holding the offline examination. While Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi has said that holding exams is unfair to students. There had been a demand for cancelation of board exams by students for a long. A final date of holding the NEET and JEE Main remaining sessions are also expected today.
Decision Awaited on JEE, NEET: The national-level meeting also discussed holding entrance exams including JEE Main, JEE Advanced, and NEET among others. While the entrance exams were not named, Rajnath Singh in his statement had said that the priority is to hold “all” exams. While for JEE students, the wait is for revised exam dates for pending sessions of the engineering entrance. For NEET aspirants the application form has not been released yet. Since the exam is scheduled to be held on August 1, there are speculations that the medical entrance test can be postponed too.
CBSE Exams Likely By June 1: Soon after Pokhriyal in a video message said, “While postponing the 12th exams we had asked you to give us time till June 1. Now, I assure you that there will be clarity on board exams by June 1. I assure you that you will have at least 15 days time between the board exams and the date of the announcement.”
While the decision will be taken at a national level, it will also have effects on state-level bodies including state education boards. Earlier in April when a meeting between Education Minister and Prime Minister concluded that class 10 exams will be canceled by CBSE other boars including CISCE and state-level boards too had decided to cancel class 10th exams and decided that students will be promoted without exams. An almost similar criterion was adopted across states.
The meeting was chaired by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Among high-profile ministers to attend the meeting are Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, former HRD Minister and Minister of Women and Child Development Srmiti Z Irani, and former HRD Minister and currently minister of I&B Prakash Javadekar. Minister of State or Education Sanjay Dhotre is also present.
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