Amid COVID-19 surge, Delhi govt suspends physical classes, offline exams

NEW DELHI: Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, the Delhi government Friday ordered the suspension of physical academic activities and offline examinations for all classes till further orders.

"Due to rising cases of COVID-19, schools in Delhi will remain closed for all classes till further orders," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted. The Directorate of Education (DoE) said in an order, "All schools are, hereby, informed that the conduct of all academic and examination activities through physical mode shall remain suspended with immediate effect till further orders." The AAP dispensation had last week announced that students of any class will not be called to school in the new academic session.

However, class 10 and class 12 students who have to appear in board exams in May-June were going to school with the consent of their parents for preparations as well as practical exams. Also, classes 9 and 11 students were being called to school for exams. "They (schools) are further directed to ensure that no student of classes 9 to 12 is called in the school physically for any kind of academic examination activity (like practice of practicals, mid-term and annual examination related work i.e practical, project submission, assessments etc.) till further orders," the DEO order added.

Delhi recorded 8,521 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest single-day surge since November 11 last year, while 39 more people died due to the infection, taking the death toll to 11,196, according to the city health department. Students of class 10 and 12 have been demanding that the board exams scheduled in May-June be either cancelled or conducted in online mode. However, both CBSE and CICSE have not taken any decision in this regard yet. While CBSE officials said the board has increased the number of examination centres by 50 per cent to ensure social distancing, CICSE officials maintained the schedule will remain unchanged.

The CBSE had last week announced that if any student fails to appear for ongoing practical exams after the student or any family member testing positive, the schools will conduct re-tests for them at an appropriate time. The officials, however, did not comment on whether the same relaxation will be given to students in theory exams as well.

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