In the latest CBSE news, a group of parents have filed a petition at Supreme Court to cancel the CBSE board exams 2020 for student safety since they are supposed to be conducted from July 1 to 15 – at a time when Covid-19 cases will be at their peak.

New jDelhi, June 12:

 

In the latest CBSE news, a new development has arisen as a group of four parents have filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to cancel the CBSE board exams 2020 in view of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

On Tuesday, June 9, Col (Retd) Amit Bathla, Poonam Singla, Charu Singh and Sunitha all of them Delhi residents filed a petition through advocate Rishi Malhotra asking the apex court to quash the CBSE board exams which could put thousands of lives of students all across India at risk.

India now has 3,01,625 confirmed coronavirus cases and by the time CBSE is supposed to hold the board exams from July 1 to July 15, the numbers will far exceed the AIIMS prediction of 3 lakh cases.

Considering the fact that the CBSE board exams are set to held pan India in over 15,000 exam centres, this could put students at a great risk and turn them into coronavirus carriers even if they don’t show Covid-19 symptoms immediately.

CBSE news: What did the petition filed by the parents say?

The petition states that since the CBSE board exams were already cancelled for the 250-off schools abroad and students were set to be evaluated on the basis of internal assessment and practical exams which had already been conducted, why couldn’t the same be applied to the schools in India this year?

The petition notes how sad it is that respondents weren’t concerned about the fate of such a decision on the students who are in India now.

Advocate Rishi Malhotra reportedly said that many colleges and state boards had already taken the decision to cancel exams due to safety issues and CBSE should also think about doing the same.

The petition also noted that since most Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic at first, the children appearing for the CBSE exams could turn into carriers and then start infecting other people.

Many universities and major institutes such as Delhi University and the IITs have cancelled their exams due to this reason; state boards such as that of Chhattisgarh have also done the same.

As per LiveLaw, the petition said that it would be a painful task for students to sit for almost four hours in an exam hall in July with gloves and masks when the temperature would be around 45 degrees in many places in India.

The petition states that since CBSE increased the number of exam centres from 3000 to 15000 so that social distancing can be maintained, keeping a track of safety guidelines in so many centres would be a futile exercise.

CBSEE Board Exams 2020: How is CBSE planning to go ahead with them?

As a safety measure against Covid-19, the CBSE exams would be conducted in the students’ home schools so students can avoid the need to travel long distances.

Other safety guidelines have also been announced, and you can check more details here.

On June 2, CBSE released a notification informing students about how they could change their CBSE exam centres and the eligibility criteria to do so since many students were residing in areas current under lockdown or in a containment zone in which case no CBSE exam centre would be present.

The main reason behind this decision by CBSE was to ensure that students don’t need to travel long distances during their board exams at a time when the lockdown might be lifted but the coronavirus would still be around.

More information about changing CBSE exam centres, eligibility and process can be found here.

The new CBSE board exam 2020 datesheets for classes 10 and 12 had been released on May 18 and students are going ahead with the preparations, especially from the CBSE Online website which holds free PDFs for sample papers and study material for mainly classes 9 to 12, but also some material for classes 6 to 8.

Now it remains to be seen what decision is taken by Supreme Court and if we get any change in the latest CBSE news regarding the petition filed by the parents to cancel the CBSE exams.