Amid growing demand by students and parents to cancel the CBSE Class 12 Board Exam 2021 due to rising COVID-19 cases in the country, industry chamber FICCI has written a letter to the central government mentioning that the current COVID-19 situation in the country is not good to hold CBSE Class 12 Board Exam 2021 exam.
FICCI President Uday Shankar wrote a letter to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and said that the Centre and CBSE should come up with an alternate solution to determine academic progression.
According to Uday Shankar, the delay in holding CBSE Class 12 Board Exam 2021 will affect those students seeking admission in Indian higher educational institutions and would also affect the dreams of those aiming to pursue higher education outside India.
"COVID cases in the country are still very high... As such, the current situation is not conducive to conduct in-person examination and holding online examination is impractical given the lack of infrastructure; most importantly, any further delay will lead to distress among students. Against this backdrop, FICCI strongly recommends that Class 12 board examinations should be called off," he said.
It is to be noted that over 5 lakh students from India go overseas every year and over 2 lakh have confirmed offers of admission this year. The FICCI president noted that it is highly unlikely that foreign universities would relax their timelines in order to accommodate a delayed examination schedule in India and this will create a lot of problems for students.
"It is imperative, therefore, that the Class 12 evaluation process is completed by mid-July so that there is a smooth transition to higher education for all students," he said.
Shankar said that schools should be allowed to consider marks scored in several tests/exams conducted during the academic year 2020-21 and assign appropriate weightage in order to prepare the results of Class 12 students.
"As such, a once in a century pandemic calls for an out-of-the-box solution which is in the best interests of students who have already been subjected to a lot of stress and uncertainty," he added.
