COVID-19 Lockdown: Beware of fake notices on board exams

NEW DELHI: Numerous fake notices and announcements on board exams, college exams and evaluation are circulating on social media and messaging services.

This week, the Central Board of Secondary Education or CBSE, the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad or UP Board, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) and Mumbai University, have all had to counter fake notices and debunk rumours about the examination and evaluation process.

These bodies have either postponed exams or evaluation to enforce social distancing during a lockdown to check the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The derailment of the academic calendar has thrown the lives of students into chaos.

Now, purveyors of fake news are exploiting that anxiety and circulating notices with dubious logos and letterheads to add to the confusion.

CBSE

On April 3, the Press Information Bureau’s fact-checking service sent out an alert on a fake CBSE release stating that “the board examinations of Class 10 and Class 12 would resume from April 22, 2020.”

The unsigned notice is fake and was not issued by CBSE.

In a recent official statement, the CBSE notified that the board examinations for Class 10 (north-east Delhi) and Class 12 will be held for only 29 main subjects. But no new dates have been announced.

UP Board

A similar fake 'notice' saying the UP board exams will not be evaluated and students of Class 10 and 12 will be promoted was circulating on social media and messaging applications on the night of April 2.

The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad's secretary, Neena Srivastava told Careers360 the notice is "absolutely fake". No such notice has been issued and that evaluation of answer scripts for both Class 10 and 12 will take place in due course.

The UP board examinations for Class 10 and Class 12 have already ended. The board examinations began on February 18 and the last paper was held on March 6, 2020.

The evaluation process for checking answer scripts was put on hold on March 17 amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

ICSE and ISC

The CISCE has issued a notice warning students and parents about false information and fake messages being circulated on social media regarding Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and Indian School Certificate (ISC) examinations.

The notice signed by Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary of the council, clarifies that the remaining ICSE and ISC 2020 examination have not been cancelled. The notice also clearly states that CISCE has not released any revised schedule for the examinations yet.

The notice says that multiple fake documents, including a fake press release, were cirulated on April 1. One said that all remaining ICSE and ISC examinations have been cancelled due to the lockdown and another said the Class 10 ICSE exams will resume from April 16 and continue till April 22, 2020.

Mumbai University

On receiving queries from college administrators as well as students about examination timetables posted on various social media platforms, Mumbai University clarified on March 2 that it has not approved any new timetable for the summer examination session.

Hindustan Times reported that the university further clarified that it will not release any exam and timetable related circular before April 14.

In a statement released by Vinod Patil, director, board of examinations and evaluations, Mumbai University said, “Due to COVID-19 outbreak , government has declared lockdown upto 14 April 2020 and accordingly, University of Mumbai issued a circular that the varsity and colleges affiliated with us will not conduct any examination until 14 April 2020.”

Update: This copy has been updated to include the announcement from CISCE.

Also read:

• Coronavirus: UP Board result delay expected as evaluation postponed
• COVID-19: PIB sets up fact check unit, starts a daily bulletin

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