After Tamil Nadu cancelled its Class 12 exams on Saturday night, its neighbouring Union Territory, Puducherry has also cancelled exams for Class 12 students. Chief Minister N Rangasamy announced that the Class 12 exams would be cancelled due to the deadly Coronavirus second wave.
But the government has not decided on how the students would be marked, said the CM. While Puducherry joined a list of states with cancelled board exams, there remain a few more who have not cancelled the exams yet but had already postponed the exams. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has said that the decision whether to conduct state board exams would be taken by the states depending on local conditions.
One such state, West Bengal, on Sunday shared email ids and sought public opinion three days after forming an expert panel to check the feasibility of conducting board exams amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The public would have 24 hours to respond with their suggestions. Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam and Andhra Pradesh are some of the other states yet to cancel state board exams.
Previously, owing to the second wave of the Coronavirus, the CBSE had cancelled its Class XII examinations, on June 1. This was after a series of protests and petitions from students, parents and activists. Before this, on April 14, the board had cancelled its Class X examinations. Around the same time, many other states and boards had also cancelled their board examinations. Also, the NTA had postponed the Joint Entrance Examination.