New Delhi, March 18: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday postponed ongoing classes 10, 12 examinations till March 31 in view of the coronavirus outbreak.
“All ongoing CBSE examinations in India and abroad postponed till March 31 and will be rescheduled thereafter… after an assessment of the situation,” CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi said.
“All ongoing evaluation work will be suspended during the period,” he added.
The CBSE announcement came following a directive from the HRD Ministry saying exams are important but safety and security of students and teachers is equally important.
The HRD Ministry’s National Testing Agency also postponed JEE for IIT, engineering college admissions.
“While maintenance of academic calendar and exam schedule is important, equally important is safety and security of students who are appearing in various examinations as also of their teachers and parents,” HRD secretary Amit Khare said in an official communication.
“All the ongoing examinations, including CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education)board exams, be postponed till March 31 and rescheduled thereafter,” he added.
The CBSE has also directed board examination centres to ensure sitting arrangement with adequate distance between students to contain the coronavirus spread.
“It shall be responsibility of examination centres to ensure that candidates for board exams are seated at distance of one metre from one another. For wherever the size of room doesn’t permit that, the examinees can be split into other rooms.
“The exam invigilators should wear masks or cover face with handkerchiefs during exams,” CBSE Controller of Exams Sanyam Bhardwaj said in an advisory. — PTI
