Coronavirus Lockdown Guidelines for Class 10, Class 12 exams: After a debate on whether to exempt board examinations from lockdown guidelines for 10th and 12th standard students, the Minister of Home Affairs (MHA) has given a go-ahead and asked CBSE, ICSE and other state education boards to conduct board examinations across the country. However, there is a catch. There are several conditions proposed by the central government that any board will have to comply with if it is conducting board examinations for students belonging to 10th and 12th standard. The decision to exempt Board examinations from the lockdown measures has been taken in consideration keeping in mind the academic interest of a large number of students across India, Home Minister Amit Shah said.
Guidelines to conduct Board examinations for 10th and 12th class
- No exam will be conducted in a centre that is a part of a containment zone.
- All the students, teachers and other staff members will have to wear face masks at all times.
- There should be a provision for thermal screenings and sanitizers for everyone present at the examination centre.
- Proper protocol of social distancing should be maintained between students during the exam.
- As all the educational boards will be conducting exams, they should not be arranged at a same time i.e., exam schedules should be staggered.
- All state and union territories should provide buses for transporting students to the examination centres.
While the centre has raised a green flag to these exams, it is to note that until now, the government had not allowed board exams (set in March this year) to be conducted on the back of the Coronavirus outbreak. Schools and universities were also asked to suspend all classes until further notice.