Students move SC against offline board exams

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New Delhi, February 12

Highlighting the Covid-19 situation and the difficulties faced by them due to interruptions in schooling, students from several states moved the Supreme Court against holding board exams offline.

The petitioners, who approached the top court through child rights activist Anubha Shrivastava Sahai and Students Union of Odisha, sought a direction to the University Grants Commission to set up a panel to declare admission dates for various universities and to work out an assessment formula for admission to non-professional courses.

They have demanded an alternative assessment method for the board exams. They urged the top court to direct all boards to declare results on time and give an option for improvement exam on account of problems caused by the pandemic.

The petitioners said, “… subjecting the children to write the examination and conducting the examination when the Covid-19 wave is still high, with the number of patients infected and death is rising day by day, when there are seen unprecedented mortality numbers, when the experts are predicting that third wave of resurgence likely to mostly affect children and young people, it will be violating their right to life.”

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and various state boards have proposed to hold physical exam for Classes X and XII. The CBSE is to hold board exams in the last week of April, while the ICSE and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) were yet to notify the dates, the petitioners said. Some state boards have announced the schedule, while many others have yet to take a decision.

“The students are dissatisfied by this kind of behaviour of state government and other boards and stressed and worried about their future and career,” the petitioners submitted.

Maintaining that education is important, they sought to emphasise that the lives and mental health of children, teachers, staff and parents were more important.