NEW DELHI: In a late-night announcement, the Central Board of Secondary Education postponed all board exams scheduled between March 19 and March 31, till after that period.
In a letter, Amit Khare, secretary, higher education and school education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, has also directed that the Joint Entrance Examination Main or JEE-Main 2020 should be postponed as well.
The JEE Main 2020 was to be held over April 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11. Khare's letter directs all universities to postpone exams as well.
However, the Press Trust of India reports that Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations which conducts the Class 10 ICSE exam and the Class 12 ISC exam, will conduct the exams as per the original schedule.
Precautionary measure
The CBSE's announcement said the postponement was being done as a "precautionary measure" against the spread of novel coronavirus.
It says: "All ongoing examinations of the board for Classes 10 and 12, being held in examination centres in India and abroad, and scheduled between 19.03.2020 to 31.03.2020 (both dates inclusive) shall be rescheduled after 31st March 2020."
The re-examinations that were scheduled for students from Northeast district of Delhi will be further rescheduled.
The new dates will be communicated by the CBSE by March 31, 2020 "after reassessment of the situation". All ongoing evaluation is also "suspended" till March 31, says the CBSE's statetment. Rescheduling of evaluation may begin from April 1.
The MHRD's letter, made public by the Asian News International, is addressed to all the higher education regulators and exam bodies in its purview - the UGC, the AICTE, the NTA, CBSE and NIOS. It says: "All ongoing examinations may be rescheduled after 31.03.2020." The Ministry of HRD subsequently released a statement which is given below.
Also on March 18, the Aligarh Muslim University announced it was cancelling all examinations including all university-level examinations and the Class 10 and Class 12 board exams.
Write to us at news@careers360.com.
Follow us for the latest education news on colleges and universities, admission, courses, exams, research, education policies, study abroad and more..
To get in touch, write to us at news@careers360.com.
Source: Shutterstock
