A high-level meeting of state Education Ministers and state Education Secretaries took place today to discuss the conduct of examinations for Class 12 Board Exams 2021 and entrance exams for professional courses like NEET, JEE Main was chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday.
The virtual meeting started at 11:30 AM in the presence of Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Union Minister for Women and Child, Smriti Zubin Irani and Union Minister Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar.
Ahead of the meeting, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has proposed two options to the Education Ministry for conducting the Class 12 Board exams.
Under the first option, the CBSE has proposed exams for major subjects at designated centres. The second option is holding exams for the major subject exams at candidates’ respective schools, instead of designated centres.
As per sources, states were asked to see if some exams of main subjects can be held under strict COVID protocol, and for the rest of the subjects, internal assessment could be used. Also states, in the meeting, had demanded to reduce the duration of the exam from 180 minutes to 90 minutes. Sources suggest that there is strong possibility of centre going forward with conducting exam of 20 key subjects.
Delhi Deputy CM had demanded that all students must be vaccinated before them being called for exam.
While the conclusion of the meeting hasn’t been revealed yet, it is being expected that a decision on this may be made public on Tuesday.