New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs today allowed the Class 10 and 12 Board exams to be conducted by granting an exemption from the nationwide lockdown measures.
Home Minister Amit Shah said that the process of conducting board examination for classes 10th and 12th has been exempted from the lockdown measures.
The Home Minister said, “Taking into consideration the academic interest of large number of students, it has been decided to grant exemption from the lockdown measures to conduct Board examination for classes 10th & 12th, with few conditions like social distancing, face mask etc for their safety”.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has written a letter to all the Chief Secretaries of the States and Union Territories (UTs) in this regard.
“As you are aware, under the guidelines on lockdown measures opening of schools have been prohibited. As a result annual board examinations being conducted by State Education Boards/ CBSE/ ICSE etc for classes 10th and 12th have been suspended,” the letter said.
“Requests have been received from the State Government and CBS for conducting the Board examinations and the matter has been examined in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Taking into consideration the academic interest of large number of students, it has been decided to grant exemption from lockdown measures to conduct Board Examinations for Class 10th and 12th,” it added.
Bhalla, however, said that the exemption to conduct the Board Examination will be subjected to the following conditions:
1. In the containment zone, one examination centre will be permitted.
2. Wearing of face masks by teachers, staff and students will be mandatory
3. There shall be provision of thermal screening and sanitizer at the centres and social distancing in all the examination centres.
4. In view of examination to be conducted by different Boards, their examination schedules should be staggered.
5. Special buses may be arranged by the State and UTs for transportation of the students to the examination centres.
Since the commencement of the lockdown from March 25, all educational institutions across the country including schools have been shut.