As it keeps one eye on the number of COVID-19 patients and another on the series of government guidelines on lockdown, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is contemplating a series of steps to ensure that the remaining class 10 and 12 exams, which over lakhs of students have to take, go smoothly with social distancing norms firmly in place.
Students and teachers will wear masks, there will not be more than 12 candidates in a room who will be allowed to bring their sanitisers, while schools and parents will be expected to exercise caution in ensuring there are no let-ups when students travel.
HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has declared that the exams for 12 subjects of class 12 will be held from July 1 to July 15. In north-east Delhi some more exams including those of class 10, which could not be held because of communal violence, will be held.
“It is a challenging task to conduct an exam of such a vast proportions when the country is still facing the pandemic but we feel it is doable because the previous exams in March were also conducted at a time when the onslaught of the disease was being felt and accordingly modifications made. We believe learning from that experience, we will be able to put a detailed safety mechanism in place,” said an official, who wished not to be quoted.
According to another official, while the figure 12 lakh may seem huge, the maximum number of candidates that may come on a single day will be less than 4 lakhs. CBSE has conducted exams where upto 19.5 lakh students have taken the test on a single day in March.
“Even in that test we tried to ensure there are not more than 12 students in one room. Therefore, it will not be difficult to ensure there are not more than 12 students in one room to take care of the social distancing aspect,” said the second official.
It is learnt that the maximum number of students will appear for the Business Studies subject exam for class 12. Over 3.5 lakh students are expected to take this exam. Among other subjects Hindi exam will see around 3 lakh candidates taking the test, Geography has over one lakh and Home science has around 60,000 and Sociology has around 50,000 candidates.
“There is still time and we will accordingly plan and bring suitable norms. However, there will be proper social distancing and precautions when the exams are conducted,” said the second official.
According to officials, it is advisable that parents and schools also ensure that ample of number of vehicles are used that students are not packed in one space when they come to the exam centres.
