Not feasible now to conduct pending Class X, XII board exams: Sisodia tells HRD minister

New Delhi, April 28

It is not feasible now to conduct Class X and XII board exams which are pending owing to the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia suggested Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Tuesday.

He made the recommendations during a meeting of state education ministers chaired by the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister.

“It will not be feasible now to conduct the pending board exams for Class X and XII. Students should be promoted on the basis of performance in internal exams like it was done for students of Class IX and XI,” Sisodia said.

“The curriculum for the next academic session should also reduced by 30 per cent and  competitive exams such as the JEE and the NEET be conducted on the basis of the reduced syllabus,” he added.

Sisodia also put forward the Delhi government’s demand of airtime on Doordarshan and the All-India Radio (AIR) for broadcasting on-air classes by teachers of its schools.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16 when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had earlier announced that it would be conducting the pending board exams for only 29 subjects, which are crucial for the promotion and admission in undergraduate programmes.

However, there is no clarity on when the exams will be conducted even as the HRD Ministry has assured that students will be given at least a 10-day notice before the conduct of exams.

Responding to a question of conducting the remaining board exams, Pokhriyal told parents in an interaction on Monday that the pending exams would be conducted at the first possible opportunity. PTI