E-Paper
Delhi child rights body recommends CBSE to postpone board exams
New Delhi: The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on Tuesday wrote to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recommending it to either postpone the Class 10 and 12 exams -- slated to begin on May 4 -- or reconsider the assessment criteria in view of the sharp spike in Covid-19 cases across the country
New Delhi: The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on Tuesday wrote to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recommending it to either postpone the Class 10 and 12 exams -- slated to begin on May 4 -- or reconsider the assessment criteria in view of the sharp spike in Covid-19 cases across the country. CBSE officials, however, said they are monitoring the situation and will take a call soon.
The DCPCR letter comes hours after Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal requested the Centre to cancel the board exams, citing the unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases in the country. Delhi recorded the highest ever single day tally of “13,500 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours”, the CM said. Total number of fresh cases in Delhi was 13,468, according to the Delhi government health bulletin release Tuesday evening.
In its letter to CBSE chairperson Manoj Ahuja, DCPCR chief Anurag Kundu said, “India is witnessing a spectacular rise in Covid-19 cases. In the past week, nearly one million people have been infected. We lost nearly 5,000 of our loved ones to the pandemic. This wave is clearly stronger and this demands that every precaution is taken to curb its spread. Nearly five lakh children are set to appear in the upcoming board examinations. This threatens not only the children’s health, but the children may act as the carrier infecting their parents and grandparents. The examination centres can become hot spots of the pandemic.”
The child rights organisations also sought clarity on the board‘s plan to handle Covid-19 protocols at examination centres. “There remains a lack of clarity on how the CBSE intends to handle the cases of children whose relatives are infected. Similarly, how will the cases of those children be handled who get infected during the examination?” Kundu said in the letter.
“Therefore, the DCPCR advises the CBSE to either postpone the scheduled board examinations or to reconsider the assessment criteria to focus on internal examinations,” the letter added.
Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia also requested the CBSE to cancel the upcoming exams. “Looking at the rising Covid-19 cases across the country, now is the time to cancel the CBSE board examinations. When education could not be done in the traditional (offline) mode for the whole year, then why is there the stubbornness to conduct the exam in the offline mode at the end of the year? The examination centres will become super-spreaders if the exams are not cancelled,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
Officials at the CBSE, meanwhile, said that they are closely monitoring the situation. “The board is keeping a close watch on how the Covid-19 pandemic situation is unfolding across the country. Some state boards have already started postponing their exams. In case of CBSE, which is the biggest national board, any decision regarding exams cannot be taken unilaterally. We are discussing the situation with the union ministries and will soon take a call if the exams need to be postponed or not,” a senior official said.
“The board has to consider the Covid-19 situation across states before taking a call since CBSE cannot conduct exams in different states at different times. Besides, it’s not possible to adopt any other way of assessment or conduct exams online,” the official added.
