The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations on Friday deferred its Class 10 (ICSE) and Class 12 (ISC) examinations until June in view of the recent spike in Covid-19 cases across the country, the board said in a statement.

“In the light of the nationwide surge in Covid 19 cases, CISCE has decided to defer the ICSE (Class X) and ISC (Class 12) board examinations scheduled to be held from May 4, 2021,” board Secretary Gerry Arathoon said in the statement.

“The Covid situation will be closely monitored and the deferment of the ICSE and ISC 2021 examinations will be reviewed and a final decision on the conduct of the examinations will be taken by the first week of June 2021,” he added.

The statement further said that while the ISC examinations will be held on a later date, the candidates for the ICSE examinations will be given the option to write the offline exams with the Class 12 students or not write the offline exam.

“In view of the ICSE candidates opting for the second option, the CISCE will develop a fair and unbiased criterion while preparing the results of such candidates,” the statement said before closing.

The decision came two days after the Centre cancelled the CBSE Class 10 board exams and postponed the Class 12 test for the same reason.

The situation will be reviewed on June 1 before a decision is taken on the Class 12 exams of the CBSE. A notice of at least 15 days will be given before the start of the exams.

The decisions were taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Sunday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had written to the education minister seeking a cancellation of the CBSE exams. She followed this up with tweets repeating the demand.

Rahul Gandhi also called on the government to reconsider its decision to hold the exams, as did Arvind Kejriwal and the Shiv Sena.