Ministry of Human Resource and Development today ordered Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and all educational institutions to postpone ongoing exams till 31 March amid ongoing novel coronavirus spread. This includes class 10, class 12 board examinations.
- All the evaluation work to also get rescheduled after 31 March
- JEE Mains may also get rescheduled and new dates of would be announced after 31 March
Moreover, the ministry also added that all the evaluation work should get rescheduled after 31 March. This includes all evaluation work of CBSE, NIOS, University Exams.
JEE Mains will also get rescheduled and new dates of would be announced after 31 March, 2020, the ministry said in a statement.
During the aforementioned period, re-examinations that were rescheduled to be held for northeast Delhi candidates will also be further rescheduled, said CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi said.
“While maintenance of academic calendar and exam schedule is important, equally important is safety and security of students who are appearing in various examinations as also of their teachers and parents,” HRD secretary Amit Khare said in an official communication, according to PTI.
The CBSE announcement came following a directive from the HRD ministry saying exams are important but safety and security of students and teachers is equally important.
The Health Ministry on Wednesday said that the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in India rose to 151, including 25 foreign nationals.
According to the health ministry, India’s total number of cases stand at 151. Globally, the number of cases has reached over 200,000, and there have been over 8,010 reported deaths across 157 countries.
10 Things to Know:
1. CBSE, which was scheduled to conclude class 10 board exams on March 20 and class 12 board exams on March 30, will announce re-scheduled exam dates after March 31.
2. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also directed that all evaluation work related to board exams be stopped till March 31. Evaluation work will be resumed on April 1 unless otherwise informed by the board.
3. Apart from the exams which were on its regular schedule, CBSE has also postponed any exams for North-East Delhi which were scheduled during this period. All fresh dates would be announced after March 31.
4. Earlier, the board had allowed use of sanitizers and masks in the exam hall to ensure safety of students from the virus which is thought to be spread mainly from person-to-person.
5. Following the directive from the government, National Testing Agency (NTA) which had scheduled JEE Main exams in April, has also postponed the engineering entrance exam. The JEE Main exams were scheduled on April 5, 7, 9, and 11. The new dates for the exam will now be announced on March 31.
6. The delay in JEE Main schedule means there might be some delay in the conduct of JEE Advanced 2020 examination as well. The top 2,50,000 students in JEE Main exam become eligible for JEE Advanced. The ranks for JEE Main are drawn after both editions (January and April) exam are over.
7. There has been no effect on NEET UG 2020 schedule yet. The exam was scheduled in May and appears to be on schedule.
8. Meanwhile, several educational institutes have switched to online classes to complete the syllabus for the ongoing academic session.
9. The Union HRD Minister, Mr. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, on Wednesday, announced that the ministry will launch e-classes on Swayam Prabha DTH channels for school students who are missing their classes because of coronavirus outbreak.
10. IITs have also come up with creative solutions to handle the situation created by coronavirus pandemic. A team of researchers in IIT Hyderabad have developed their own hand sanitizer for the institute community. Several IITs have taken to conducting classes online for students who would be worse affected since the classes have been suspended for the ongoing semester.
All ongoing examinations of CBSE for Classes 10th & 12th, scheduled between 19th March & 31st March, shall be rescheduled after 31st March: Anurag Tripathy, CBSE Secretary pic.twitter.com/AwhI2AcYKv
— ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2020
Decision after MHRD Notification
The decision to postpone the on-going CBSE Board Exam 2020 comes following the circular of MHRD which stated that “All ongoing examinations, including that of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) & university exams, may be rescheduled after March 31: Ministry of Human Resource Development”. The notification confirmed that all ongoing exams including CBSE Board, NIOS Board and University Exams will be rescheduled and will now be held after 31st March 2020. In accordance with this, the HRD ministry has also asked concerned authorities to halt all evaluation work of answer books by the teachers until 31st March.