BENGALURU: Though the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to cancel the Class 10 exams due to the prevailing coronavirus pandemic, the State Government has not taken any decision regarding the state board exams.Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar, in a statement, said, “The Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exam will be held from June 21.” The statement further said no decision like the CBSE has been taken. However, keeping in view the situation in future, an appropriate decision will be taken, the minister was quoted as saying.
Speaking to TNIE, Sumit Batabyal, a software engineer, said, “We are shocked and my child is worried. We believe that Class 10 exams are the most crucial ones for their academic career. Now, with such a decision by the CBSE, we are not sure how the assessment will be done, on what basis marks will be awarded. Couldn’t the government postpone the exams or ensure that the exam centres are close by and Covid protocols followed? They should have made it optional and parents be given a choice whether they want their child to take the exam or not,” he said.
Another parent, who was upset over the decision, questioned the Centre’s approach on holding election rallies, movie promotions, etc. “Why can’t they hold exams? How is the government ensuring that parents are not stepping out? There was no coronavirus during tuitions, no corona during festivals, no corona during family functions. But when it comes to exams, they are suddenly concerned about the virus? We have not only paid heavy fees for tuition, my daughter is also very anxious about how her results will be.
Isn’t it unfair for someone who has worked very hard to score high marks?” Dr Ranjitha Narayanan, the parent, rued. However, Swetha Jagdish, project manager with a leading school and a parent of both Class 12 and Class 10 children, said she welcomed the decision. “I am supportive of the decision taken by CBSE to give health a priority and balance the students’ aspirations by postponing Class 12 exams and not cancelling it,” she said. Meanwhile, some students were worried that the results will be based on the pre-board examination marks and put out tweets stating that it is a big ‘no’. Radhika N, tweeted, “How will they give marks? If it’s preboards marks then PLEASE IT’S A BIG NO. Pre-boards were announced 10 days before the exam and we weren’t prepared enough. Many students in our school didn’t even give exams. I’m panicking right now.”
Educationist Niranjan Aradhya, however, clarified that the decision to cancel the exams during the pandemic is not a bad idea at all. He said that in the last one year, there has been no uniformity in learning. Each state and school had made different arrangements and many children had no access to gadgets and other requirements, he pointed out. “One should understand that it is clearly stated that some objective is being worked out. The CBSE student performance from Class 1 to 9 is based on Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation and this is a very good way to cumulatively consider the performance and also take decision along with this year’s cumulative performance. So this definitely won’t affect their future,” he noted.
However, he explained that all boards should now come up with a strategy to evaluate students uniformly, as it may othewise be discriminatory. He also added that the state board could also follow a similar model to assess the children as al l schools in the stat e under RTE are following the CCE method to analyse a child’s performance. Meanwhile, experts felt people should refrain from calling this “Covid batch” or “Covid results”, as it will stigmatise kids.