Top K12 educationists welcome CBSE’s decision to cancel class 10th exams, postpone 12th exams
Top K12 educationists in the country have welcomed the much anticipated decision on CBSE board exams this year. On Wednesday, the CBSE cancelled the 10th board exams and postponed the 12th board exams amid the rising cases of Covid-19 in the country.
Praveen Raju, Co-Chairman, FICCI ARISE; Founder, Suchitra Academy, said, “With the sudden surge in COVID -19 cases, it may not be a good idea to even have class Xll Boards. The modalities on assessments for both X and Xll students should be discussed with the stakeholders to arrive at the best possible solution. We could either wait out or figure out a way to honour the schools’ predicated grades, keeping in mind the previous year performance data of each school.”
Vishnu Karthik, CEO xperiential learning systems, said, “In these situations, no decision is worse than a bad decision. Thus it is good that some clarity on the status on the board exams was provided as it reduces the stress and uncertainty, albeit temporarily. CBSE had done the right thing by cancelling the grade 10 board exams. Grade 10 is not a high stake examination and thus the opportunity cost of cancelling the exams is not high. Although, CBSE will find it hard to come up with a fair assessment alternative and in such situations, even a perfect alternative will adversely impact some sections of the students. On Grade 12 exams, the decision to postpone the decision on board exams to June is a prudent one. Cancelling grade 12 exams is not an alternative as it would be unfair to thousands of students and it would impact their university admissions. Also, the spread of Covid-19 is not uniform across the country. Thus, taking a decision in a few months from now will help in taking a more informed decision. It would be interesting to see what the State Board’s decisions would be on their respective exams. Going by past precedence, they should be adopting CBSE’s norms.”
Charu Wahi, Principal, Nirmal Bhartia School, said “A sensible decision, given the rise in cases across the country. Thoughtful of the Board to be flexible and extend an opportunity to the Class X students to reappear at a later stage if they wish to. It’s also a decision in the best interest of Class XII, but they should now just decide and fix a date to avoid any further uncertainty, and hence, anxiety in the children. They should also plan to hold the Class XII Boards in the children’s respective schools with external examiners in order to ensure maximum safety. Further, having fixed a date, they should not lose any time and plan and prepare for an alternative mode of assessment in the event the rise in cases continues. No further postponement should be made.”
Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions, Ghaziabad, said, “I welcome the government’s decision to cancel the class X exams. While ideally, Board Exams provide a fairly accurate assessment of a student’s intellect and learning, these are unprecedented times and the health safety of students cannot be compromised with. It is a tough decision on the part of the government and I’m sure much thought has gone into it. The postponement of class XII Board Exams was also inevitable in light of the rising cases of the coronavirus pandemic in many states of India. I hope that the situation improves in the near future with the vaccination of more and more people, so that the uncertainty over class XII exams can end and education can return to relative normalcy.”
