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Covid-19: Punjab CM writes to Centre, seeks postponement of CBSE board exams
Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh wrote to Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal requesting the cancellation of these exams. The CBSE boards are scheduled to be held from May 4 onward.
As cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) rise in Punjab, chief minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought the postponement of CBSE board exams for classes 10 and 12 to allay uncertainty among students and their parents. He wrote to Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal requesting the cancellation of these exams. The CBSE board are scheduled to be held from May 4 onward.
In the letter to Pokhriyal, Singh spoke about the prevailing situation related to the coronavirus infection and stressed, “It would only be appropriate that a decision is taken forthwith to postpone the Class 10 and 12 Board examinations”. He added that this step would also allow the Centre and states to prepare a more robust plan for conducting these exams once the situation normalises.
The Punjab chief minister, while seeking the Union education minister’s early intervention into this matter, pointed out that it will be difficult to predict when the surge in infection will see a declining trend, according to a statement. Singh wrote that different states are on different levels of the second wave of the pandemic, with some likely to see a peak a little earlier compared to those where the surge started later.
The chief minister also referred to the national Covid-19 figures and said, “The steady increase in Covid-19 cases in most states of the country has created a sense of great apprehension and anguish among the students and their parents alike regarding the board examinations for classes 10 and 12.”
In Punjab itself, Singh said the Congress-led state government has been receiving requests from several quarters to postpone board exams for CBSE, ICSE as well as the state board.
Singh’s request to the Centre comes a day after his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal requested the government to cancel board exams over fear that examination centres can turn into Covid-19 hotspots. Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday, Kejriwal said some alternate provisions could be implemented. “Children can be promoted this time based on either an online method or internal assessment. But CBSE exams should be cancelled,” he said.
Covid-19 cases in Punjab soared to 279,000 on Tuesday after 3,003 new cases and 53 more deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, according to the state health department’s bulletin. More than 243,000 patients have recovered so far in the state while active cases and deaths stand at 28,184 and 7,609 respectively, the bulletin showed.
