The Centre and the CBSE on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that they have decided to cancel the Class X and XII examinations scheduled from July 1-15 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and that they would be conducted later when it is conducive.
A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar was apprised by the solicitor-general Tushar Mehta that a scheme has been formulated to assess the performance of class XII students on the basis of their performance in last examinations.
The top court was also informed that the students will have the liberty to opt either for the examinations, to be conducted later, or go with the assessment process based on past performance.
The court was hearing pleas seeking scrapping of remaining exams of Class XII scheduled from July 1-15 in view of increasing number of Covid-19 cases.
On Tuesday, Mehta, appearing for CBSE, had told the bench that the “decision-making process and discussions” on the exams were at “an advanced stage” and a “decision would be taken" by Wednesday evening.
Appearing for the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), which conducts the ISC (Class XII) and ICSE (Class X) exams, senior counsel Jaideep Gupta had submitted that it might broadly follow the government’s decision on CBSE.
According to NDTV.com, CISCE will also cancel Class 10 and 12 exams but will not provide the option to take the exam later. The autonomous board will also utilise internal assessment system to declare results, the website reported.
Parents fear that holding the exams now might expose the students to the threat of contracting Covid-19
Around 50 papers in Class X and XII exams are pending as CBSE had suspended the tests in March because of the Covid outbreak.
Later, it declared that tests in 29 main papers would be held in July.
CBSE is supposed to hold exams for six papers of Class X in North-East Delhi, which witnessed communal violence..