Amid demands from various quarters to postpone the board examinations of classes 10th and 12th in the wake of unprecedented rise in the COVID19 cases, the Ministry of Education has cancelled the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examinations for class 10th and postponed it for class 12th.

“The Board Exams for Class XIlth to be held from May 4th to June, 14th 2021 are hereby postponed. These exams will be held hereafter. The situation will be reviewed on 1 June 2021 by the Board, and details will be shared subsequently. A notice of at least 15 days will be given before the start of the examinations,” the Ministry of Education stated in its circular.

As the order cancelled the board examinations for class 10th this year, the circular stated that the results if the class 10th will be prepared on the basis of an objective criterion to be developed by the Board.

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“Any candidate who is not satisfied with the marks allocated to him/her on this basis will be given an opportunity to sit in an exam as and when the conditions are conducive to hold the exams,” it said.

The education of the students in the rural areas in the country was severely compromised due to the introduction of online classes. These students suffered due to their inability to afford devices to access education and poor data connectivity also played a role in impeding their learning.

According to a report released by the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), merely 8.5 per cent students in India have access to the internet — a technological handicap that is at the cost of the children’s right to education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting closure of schools.

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The UNICEF report stated that amongst the south Asian countries, internet access is available to 74.6 per cent students in Sri Lanka, 69.7 per cent students in Bangladesh, 36.6 per cent in Nepal, 9.1 per cent in Pakistan, 8.5 per cent in India, and 0.9 per cent in Afghanistan.

It also stated that as a result of the pandemic, lockdowns and the subsequent closure of schools has impacted 201 million students worldwide. Out of these, 170 million students had no access to education for the past one year.

Gaon Connection has been regularly reporting on the challenges being faced by children in rural India, many of whom either do not have access to smart phones or high-speed internet connection for online schooling. For instance, last August, it was found that in Pratapnagar block of Tehri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand, of the total 6,500 kids, only 2,500 were benefitting from online teaching. The remaining 4,000 were unable to study because of non-availability of smartphones or high speed internet connectivity at their homes.

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Meanwhile, India registered the highest-single day spike in new COVID19 cases with 184,372 coronavirus infections reported in the country yesterday, April 13.