The year of uncertainties and protests and petitions continues for examinations across India as almost 45,000 parents and students have signed an online plea to either cancel or postpone the upcoming CBSE and CISCE board exams. The petition comes after the two boards released schedules for offline exams last week.
The petition states that the boards are putting the lives of the students, most of whom are unvaccinated in jeopardy by 'forcing' them to come and write the exams. It referred to the recent rise in cases in West Bengal last week, and said, "Taking the exams offline (CBSE and CISCE) is a huge mistake. If you need more time to correct the online examination program, please do so.. But risking students' lives is absolutely not worth it."
The petition was addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the two boards of education.
While the two boards had decided to conduct the exams split across two terms, one online, and one offline, the CISCE did a u-turn on this decision, and said that all exams will be conducted offline from November 29 to December 16 for ICSE Class X, and from November 12 to December 20 for Class XI.
On this decision by the board, the petition said, "This is not done. The emotional stress CICSE have put its students through since 2020 is astonishing. This batch of students are being treated as test subjects.. Lab rats. They're not seen as people, children, with normal mentalities.. With feelings, with PAIN"
The first term CBSE exams for Class X students is to be held online in the MCQ pattern from November 30, and for Class XI from December 1. The second term exams are to be conducted offline in March-April 2022.
The #OnlineExamsforCBSEandICSE was trending on Twitter with students and parents asking the government to intervene in this matter.
