The suspense of examinations or no examinations for the Class-XII students came to an end with the cancellation announcement by the office of the Prime Minister. The student-friendly decision, taken keeping in view the health of the youngsters, is a big relief to all stakeholders. The results will be declared in a time-bound manner after formulation of rational criteria. In case someone is not satisfied with the result, option will be given for offline examination when the situation becomes conducive.

The decision paved way for other State Boards which are looking at the Centre for action to be taken at their end in their respective States. Soon after a day or two, several States such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan cancelled their Class-XII Board examinations. The Government of Odisha also followed suit. Prior to the decision of the Central Government, 150 students of a private college in Delhi had signed a letter addressed to the Prime Minister seeking cancellation of the examinations.

Another group of 297 students submitted a petition to the Chief Justice urging him to quash the CBSE’s decision to conduct physical examinations. They requested the court to quash the notifications issued by CBSE and ICSE and defer the examinations. They urged the court to direct the authorities to forgo the examinations and devise an objective methodology to declare the results within a timeframe.

Given the once-in-a-century pandemic situation in the country, the CBSE postponed the Class-XII examinations with a promise to announce the dates by June 1. The Centre asked all States and UTs to submit suggestions to the Ministry of Education by May 25. But as the situation changed from bad to worse, some States were not in favour of offline examinations fearing the students, parents and teachers may not be in a good mental state for any examination.

The Delhi Government conducted meetings with the stakeholders and opined that in the absence of vaccines to all the children, conducting any offline examination would make them vulnerable to the virus.

Supporting the students’ views, many political and industry leaders wrote to the Union Government not to conduct offline exams as it may trigger a third wave of the pandemic. However, the Centre and some States expressed their views in favour of conducting examinations but with some relaxations like reduced timing, exams in core subjects only, multiple and short questions and conduct of  examinations in the same school. Many views are given by many, but the ultimate sufferers are the students.

Whatever may be the criteria for passing the students, they are again going to face difficulties in the next step of their admission into the higher classes. The marks obtained by the students in Class-XII guide them the way they can opt for their future and an ambiguous examination result may not guide them into right career and the country is going to lose able human resources in the future. The admission in to the higher institutions after the declaration of the result will be another herculean task for the students. The students who were admitted into the first year degree in Odisha last year are yet to step into the classrooms. They are to be satisfied with the online classes and yet to appear for the uncertain first semester examinations.

 The second year students who got an opportunity of blended education online and offline are waiting to appear for their 3rd semester examination. The worst victims are the final year students waiting anxiously for the final semester examination as this will help them go for further studies or provide them applying eligibility for employment. All State Governments and universities are looking towards the guidelines of the UGC, which is expected to issue the same in June provided there will be a conducive environment for conducting examinations online or offline.

At the same time, the universities are preparing themselves for admission of the first year students. With the cancellation of examinations, the suspense is over, but the question of assessment is still looming large.

The Supreme Court has directed CBSE and CISCE to submit reports on objective criteria for the students’ assessment within 20 days. The Odisha Government has formed a 14-member committee with leading educationists to determine the criteria for students’ merit evaluation with a timeframe of ten days to submit report.

Whatever may the criteria, the students are advised to accept it to go ahead with their plans for further education to make their careers. There may be setbacks in their career plans, but they have to accept it and concentrate on their future plans. This is the only way to show our solidarity in the fight against Covid-19 and safeguarding the academic years.

(Dr Biswal is Head, Department of Commerce, Nowrangpur College, Nabarangpur-764063. Mob: 9437125286. bhaskarnathbiswal@gmail.com)