India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea seeking cancellation of term-2 exams for classes 10 and 12 in the offline mode in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar and comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar dismissed the appeal, saying that such a petition creates “false hope” and “confusion” for all students.
“Let the students do their job and let the authorities do their jobs,” the bench observed.
Authorities are already working on finalising dates and other arrangements. If there is any problem once those are finalised, then the aggrieved parties can approach the authorities, “the bench further observed, while junking the plea.
The plea sought the cancellation of class 10 and 12 board exams conducted by all state education boards and central boards such as the Central Board of Secondary Education, Indian Certificate of Secondary Education, and the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).
The plea sought an alternative evaluation method by the educational boards or the conduction of exams online.
Last year, almost all state and central education boards had to cancel class 10 and class 12 final exams due to the second wave of COVID-19 and follow alternative methods of evaluation.
However, CBSE, CISCE, and some other state boards have decided to go with a two-term board exam system for 2021-22.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced the dates for class 10 and 12 term 2 exams. The term 2 exams will be held on April 26.
Meanwhile, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is likely to conduct the ICSE Class 10 and ISC Class 12 exams in the last week of April.
CISCE said in a statement that the detailed time table will be released shortly.
(With contributions from agencies)