CBSE schools council urges centre to vaccinate teachers ahead of exams

The fear has caused around one lakh students to send a petition to the board seeking cancellation of the examinations
Representative Image
Representative Image

In the wake of the sudden surge in Covid cases over the past few days in the state, the teachers and students preparing for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examinations scheduled to commence from May 4 are a worried lot. In fact, the fear has caused around one lakh students to send a petition to the board seeking cancellation of the examinations.

"However, that is not a solution," said Indira Rajan, secretary-general, National Council for CBSE Schools (NCCS). Taking note of the issue, the had NCCS drafted a letter and sent it to the Ministry of Education. "We wrote that there is a need to have a safety net in place when the examinations for Classes 10 and 12 begin as a large number of students and teachers will be coming in contact then. So, we suggested getting all teachers vaccinated before the examinations," said the NCCS secretary-general. "At present, only people aged above 45 have the chance to get vaccinated. But if one takes a look at the age of those teaching in CBSE schools, it can be seen that around 80 per cent of them are below 45 years of age," she said.

The non-teaching staff should also be vaccinated since they are also a part of the examination process, she said. "We have requested Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal to urgently consider vaccinating all teaching and non-teaching staff," she said. "Our prime responsibility is the safety and security of all staff and students. Of course, precautionary measures will be in place as per Covid protocol. But much more needs to be done for this humongous process called the Board examination, which is conducted across the country over two months," she added. Meanwhile, many teachers in the state said it would be a welcome step if the Education Ministry initiates steps to get them vaccinated too.

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
EdexLive
www.edexlive.com