Uddhav Thackeray’s cabinet decides to cancel Maharashtra’s Class 12 exams

Maharshtra school education minister Varsha Gaikwad said the government’s first priority is to ensure the health and safety of the students.

Mumbai: The Uddhav Thackeray government on Wednesday decided to cancel the Maharashtra board examinations for Class 12 students. The in-principle decision by the Maharashtra cabinet will be placed before the state disaster management authority, also headed by chief minister Uddhav Thackaray, for the formal orders.

The Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday decided to cancel the class 12 exams at a meeting chaired by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. The decision will be formally notified after the Maharashtra disaster management authority, also headed by Thackeray, vets the decision. (PTI)

The state school education department on Wednesday moved a proposal to the state disaster management authority headed by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to take the final decision, officials said. A formal announcement is expected after the nod by the authority.

School education minister Varsha Gaikwad, who had welcomed the Centre’s decision to cancel CBSE class 12 exams on Tuesday, said their priority is to ensure the health and safety of the students.

Around 1.5 million students appear for Class 12 exams in Maharashtra every year.

The Maharashtra government had earlier decided to cancel Class 10 board examinations due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation and promote students on the basis of their performance in Class 9 and 10.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday had announced the Centre’s decision not to hold the school-leaving exams conducted by the CBSE this year. Several states such as Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh also have cancelled Class 12 board examinations.

“We informed the state cabinet about the decisions taken by the central government and a few states pertaining to Class 12 exams. We have moved a proposal to the state disaster management authority to take a decision in this regard as all such decisions have to be approved by it considering the unprecedented situation,” Gaikwad said on Wednesday after the state cabinet meeting.

“Our stand on this issue has been clear since the beginning. Health, safety and mental stress of the students needs to be considered before taking such a decision. We had clarified our stand in a meeting of education ministers of all the states chaired by the defence minister Rajnath Singh and have also welcomed the decision of cancellation of Class 12 board exams. The same has been proposed before the disaster management authority,” school education minister Varsha Gaikwad said.

A senior official familiar with the matter said all ministers supported Gaikwad’s proposal to scrap the Class 12 board exam at the cabinet meeting.

“It was decided that it should be approved by the disaster management authority as Epidemic Diseases Act was invoked in the state,” said a senior official, privy to the development.

Class 12 examinations were scheduled on April 23 and were put off till May-end owing to a surge in Covid-19 cases and subsequently lockdown restrictions imposed to arrest the spread.