Mumbai civic body gives nod for schools to hold offline exams

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has allowed city schools under the Cambridge board to conduct exams for Classes 9 to 12 offline, with all precautions as prescribed by the civic body, while schools of all other boards will be allowed to conduct board exams for Classes 10 and 12.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has allowed city schools under the Cambridge board to conduct exams for Classes 9 to 12 offline, with all precautions as prescribed by the civic body, while schools of all other boards will be allowed to conduct board exams for Classes 10 and 12.

Mumbai civic body gives nod for schools to hold offline exams

As per a circular issued by the civic body late on Tuesday, schools under all boards such as the state, ICSE, CBSE etc shall be allowed to conduct all exams announced or to be announced by the respective boards for Class 10 and 12 in the offline format. “Schools under the Cambridge board can conduct preliminary exams or preboard exams as per their schedules offline while those under all the other boards can also conduct exams prescribed by the respective boards for Classes 10 and 12,” stated the circular.

The circular comes a few days after the Members of International Schools’ Association (MISA) requested the civic body to allow reopening of schools for the conduct of prelim exams especially for students of Classes 10 and 12. This year, Cambridge International has scheduled its board exams from the last week of January. Francis Joseph, who represented MISA in the matter said schools were now hoping to get permission to reopen for classes too. “We hope that schools are allowed to reopen from January 18 with all the precautions in place,” he added.

Due to Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown, there was a lot of uncertainty about the conduct of exams in schools across various boards. While the CBSE has announced that its board exams will be held in May, the Maharashtra state board has recently said that the exams will be held in April and May for Class 12 and 10 respectively. The state board is yet to announce a timetable for its exams.

As per the guidelines issued by the BMC in December, schools in the city shall remain closed at least until January 15. In other parts of the state, schools for Classes 9 to 12 have reopened since November 23 with the necessary precautions. Schools under consulates and embassies in Mumbai are allowed to reopen from January 18.