While attending the education ministers' meeting called by the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has asked to promote the CBSE class 10 and class 12 students without holding the pending examinations, but, based on the internal marks. Mr Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said that he informed the meeting that it is not feasible now to conduct the remaining exams of CBSE class 10 and Class 12 students in view of the coronavirus spread.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), national level secondary education and certification body, had postponed the class 10 and class 12 examinations in March in view of preventing the spread of coronavirus outbreak in the country. Later, according to a notification released in the first week of April, the Board had decided to conduct only the important remaining papers.
"It will not be possible to conduct the remaining exams of CBSE 10th and 12th so that children should be passed on the basis of internal exams as it was done for the students of 9th and 11th," Mr Sisodia said while tweeting about the details discussed in the meeting.
He also demanded reduced syllabus for next academic year as well as for entrance examinations like JEE, NEET and other entrance examinations for higher education institutions.
"For the next year, the entire syllabus should be reduced by at least 30% and JEE, NEET and other entrance examinations for higher education institutions should also be taken on the basis of reduced syllabus," he tweeted.
Responses in regard to Mr Sisodia's suggestions are awaited from the HRD ministry and CBSE.
HRD Minister called the meeting with state education ministers to discuss issues related to COVID-19 and mid-day meal programme through video conferencing.
During the meeting, Mr Pokhriyal appealed to all the states to start the process of evaluation of answer sheets of Board exams and facilitate CBSE to evaluate answer sheets of the students in their respective States.
Education Ministers of 22 States and secretaries from 14 States and Union Territories attended the conference. Minister of State for HRD, Sanjay Dhotre, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy Anita Karwal and senior officials of the Ministry participated in the meeting.
While addressing the meeting, the Union Minister said that the current situation of COVID-19 is unfortunate, but it is time to act wisely and turn the situation into opportunity by doing new experiments to ensure safety and academic welfare of students.
Mr Pokhriyal said that our whole efforts should be that our 33 crore students do not face any difficulty and can continue their education and for this, various efforts are being made to strengthen the online education platforms.
The Minister also said that apart from this, alternative academic calendar has also been released by NCERT which states can adopt according to their local situation. "Also we have to prepare safety guidelines in case of opening of schools".
Considering the health of the students, Union Minister said that in the event of lockdown, ration is being provided under mid-day meal for the children to get adequate and nutritious food.
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