Coronavirus lockdown: States put board exam evaluation on hold

NEW DELHI: A number of state secondary and senior secondary examination boards are putting the evaluation process on hold as India faces an unprecedented lockdown due to the spread of coronavirus.

The Uttar Pradesh (UP) board has suspended the evaluation process till April 2. Previously, around 1.47 lakh teachers had been tasked with evaluating over three crore answer scripts within a time frame of 10 days.

Class 10 and 12 results in Uttar Pradesh were to be declared on April 24 as per the original schedule.

Previously Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations had adopted a decentralized evaluation process forthe Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Class 10 board exams and Indian School Certificate (ISC) Class 12 board exams.

The teachers were given detailed instructions on collection of the boxes of answer sheet from evaluation centres, evaluating the answer scripts and returning the boxes.

Elsewhere, the Chhattisgarh Board of Secondary Education (CGBSE) has also postponed the evaluation process for the Chhattisgarh board exams 2020.

The evaluation process, scheduled to begin from March 26 has now been deferred. This could lead to delay in declaration of the Chhattisgarh board exams results for Class 10 and Class 12.

The Indian Express reported that Chhattisgarh Madhyamik Shiksha Mandal, or CGBSE, will release the revised dates after assessing the situation. CGBSE has announced that the teachers will be working from home during the three-week lockdown. It has also released special instructions for teachers to follow while evaluating from home. The report said 2,69,473 students had registered for the Class 12 board exams.

In his letter to CBSE, National Institute of Open Schooling, National Testing Agency and higher education regulators, Amit Khare, Secretary, Ministry of HRD, had written, “While maintenance of academic schedule and calendar is important, equally important is the safety and security of students who are appearing in various exams”.
Following this, Anurag Tripathi, Secretary, CBSE, issued a statement that not only board exams but also the evaluation work has to be stopped till March 31. Tripathi had said that the new schedule for the evaluation process will start from April 1 unless otherwise notified by the board.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected the academic calendars across India. Educational institutions, universities, schools have been closed, classes have been cancelled, exams are postponed and results will be delayed.

In order to contain the spread of COVID-19, on March 24, the Prime Minister of India had declared a nationwide lockdown and advised people to stay in their homes and follow social distancing.

India has seen a total of 649 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.

Also read:

• Coronavirus fallout: Schools to promote students without exams
• Coronavirus: MHRD directs CBSE and NTA to draw up exam schedules

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