A petition in the Supreme Court by a Mathematics teacher from Kerala seeks to not cancel the CBSE's Class XII board examinations. Owing to the second wave of the pandemic, the board had earlier decided to postpone the examination, which was originally supposed to be held from May 4. A decision is to be taken by the Ministry of Education and the CBSE on June 1, analysing the pandemic situation then.
The plea by a teacher, Tony Joseph, was admitted on May 18, after the CBSE had conducted multiple meetings evaluating the possibility of doing away with the exam this year. "The Class XII Board exams are the most integral exam in the life of a student. The class XII exam is a career-defining and more importantly the admission to higher education institutions hinges on the result of this exam," reads the petition.
Now, what could be the solution here? The petition suggests that the CBSE either postpones the examination by a few more months or conduct an online examination. "It is better to review the situation and accordingly decide to either postpone the exam for a few months or else conduct online exams sitting at home. The students anyhow were attending classes at home and all the internal exams were conducted sitting at their homes only, so it is not an impossible task to conduct online board exams if need be," it says
The petition also criticises reports and petitions seeking a cancellation of the examination. "It appears as if an atmosphere for cancellation of the exams is being created in order to create pressure on the respondents to take the decision of cancelling the exam. The instant petition and other social media petitions by some students is an attempt to strengthen that atmosphere," the petition says. He adds that a large section of people favour the conduct of examinations.
It also says, "That it is also submitted that scrapping of the exam will be unfair to the large section of hardworking students and their parents who have used the study leave period from January onwards as a period for continuous revisions. It is also important to note that many parents have shelled more than the school fees on private tuition fees in the last few months for improving the performance of their children in the board exam."
