Reactions on Exam Postponement: JEE 2021, 12th CBSE and Cancelled 10th Board
Ministry of education announced the postponement and cancellation of JEE 2021, 12th CBSE board and 10th CBSE board.
If we see the situation, Covid-19 is between us even after postponement of exams. The delay will create a lot of confusion in students’ minds, whether they study for board exams or for entrance exams and clearly this will break the rhythm of studying, but industry experts welcomed these decisions because of the current rise of Covid, and said;
“Today NTA postponed JEE April session which was supposed to be held on 27th 28th & 30th April after intervention of Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Hon Education minister of India. It is known that already two sessions of JEE have happened in February & March in which approx. 6.2 lakh & 5.5 lakh students appeared respectively. It has also been stated that the new dates of these exams will be announced 15 days in advance and students should keep preparing and visit www.nta.ac.in.
“The cancelation of class 10th board has also happened which is a welcome step amidst this COVID situation however class 12th board exam is exit exam to school system is intact and is postponed keeping in view of the safety of the students”.
Seeing the current Covid condition daily cases reported close to 3 lakhs it is quite sensible to postpone the April session however this and May sessions are more useful for students who have dropped a year and preparing after class 12th as these months were for class 12th Board examination and its preparations which were supposed to held in May first week. The postponement of board exams may also lead to postponement of JEE advanced exam as well. But students can see it as a blessing in disguise and use this time to do more practice and revise their class 11th syllabus which was out of touch for them.
Although the majority of students are happy with this decision, bright students who wanted to prove their mettle are disappointed. However, a checkpoint which was there ever since in class 10th has suddenly disappeared, on the other hand class 10th marksheet was only used to verify date of birth only. However, the exit exam for school system is class 12th which is still intact and is key factor for admission in multiple graduation courses”
*Saurabh Kumar, National Academic Director, Vidyamandir Classes*
“With the sudden surge in COVID -19 cases, it may not be a good idea to even have class Xll Boards. The modalities on assessments for both X and Xll students should be discussed with the stakeholders to arrive at the best possible solution. We could either wait out or figure out a way to honour the schools’ predicated grades, keeping in mind the previous year performance data of each school”.
*Praveen Raju, Co-Chairman, FICCI ARISE; Founder, Suchitra Academy*
“In these situations, no decision is worse than a bad decision. Thus it is good that some clarity on the status on the board exams was provided as it reduces the stress and uncertainty, albeit temporarily. CBSE had done the right thing by cancelling the grade 10 board exams. Grade 10 is not a high stake examination and thus the opportunity cost of cancelling the exams is not high. Although, CBSE will find it hard to come up with fair assessment alternative and in such situations, even a perfect alternative will adversely impact some sections of the students. On Grade 12 exams, the decision to postpone the decision on board exams to June is a prudent one. Cancelling grade 12 exams is not an alternative as it would be unfair to thousands of students and it would impact their university admissions. Also, the spread of Covid-19 is not uniform across the country. Thus, taking a decision in a few months from now will help in taking a more informed decision. It would be interesting to see what the State Boards decisions would be on their respective exams. Going by past precedence, they should be adopting CBSE’s norms”.
*Vishnu Karthik, CEO xperiential learning systems*
A sensible decision, given the rise in cases across the country. Thoughtful of the Board to be flexible and extend an opportunity to the Class X students to reappear at a later stage if they wish to. It’s also a decision in the best interest of Class XII, but they should now just decide and fix a date to avoid any further uncertainty, and hence, anxiety in the children. They should also plan to hold the Class XII Boards in the children’s respective schools with external examiners in order to ensure maximum safety. Further, having fixed a date, they should not lose any time and plan and prepare for an alternative mode of assessment in the event the rise in cases continues. No further postponement should be made.
*Ms. Charu Wahi, Principal, Nirmal Bhartia School*
“I welcome the government’s decision to cancel the class X exams. While ideally, Board Exams provide a fairly accurate assessment of a student’s intellect and learning, these are unprecedented times and the health safety of students cannot be compromised with. It is a tough decision on the part of the government and I’m sure much thought has gone into it. The postponement of class XII Board Exams was also inevitable in light of the rising cases of the coronavirus pandemic in many states of India. I hope that the situation improves in the near future with the vaccination of more and more people, so that the uncertainty over class XII exams can end and education can return to relative normalcy”.
*Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions, Ghaziabad*
