Defence Minister to hold high-level meeting to take decision on CBSE class 12 exams

Amid the COVID-19 crisis and delayed class 12 Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examination, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will chair a meeting on Sunday to take key decisions on the matter. Apart from the state education officials and Minister of Education Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the meeting will be also attended by the Minister of Textiles and Women & Child Development Smriti Irani and Minister of Environment, Information & Broadcasting, Heavy Industries & Public Enterprise Prakash Javdekar. The scheduled examination was postponed by the Education Ministry on April 14. 

All the state education ministers are expected to join the meeting. 

The Ministry of Education, in its series of tweets informed about the meeting adding that the Minister of State for Education, Communications, Electronics & IT, Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre will also be present at the meeting. 

The meeting decision comes ahead of the review meeting which was scheduled for June 1. CBSE considers Nearly 20 of the 174 subjects offered by the board as major subjects. Students are allowed to choose minimum of five and a maximum of six subjects out of which four are considered major ones. The education ministry had asked for suggestions from several stakeholders before making the final call. 

Students, parents demand cancellation

Meanwhile, students and parents have demanded cancellation of the board examination for class 12 with a fear of infection in students. School authorities have explored possible solutions for the dilemma. Few principals from various schools have also suggested that online exams can be conducted with setting up of the centers as per different locations while few other stakeholders have suggested evaluating students on the basis of assessment exams or aptitude tests. 

The CBSE board canceled the class 10 board examination and decided to conduct internal assessment to promote the students. Reports of only major subject exams of class 12 students have also speculated however it has to be seen what is decided at the meeting today. Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases in India have dipped a bit but resuming schools does not look like an option for a long time. These exams generally get over between February-March every year.

(Inputs from ANI)