After facing pandemic-induced disruptions for three years, the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) board exams returned to their usual routine this year with students of classes 10 and 12 on Wednesday taking their painting and entrepreneurship tests respectively, without masking and social distancing.
Over the last three years, CBSE board exams have been affected due to the pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, the board had declared classes 10 and 12 results based on a tabulation policy approved by the Supreme Court. Students were marked on the basis of their internal exams, practicals, assignments and performance in previous classes.
Asteek Narayan, a Class 12 student at Government Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Radhey Shyam Park, said that he was glad the exams were not taking place in an atmosphere where students had additional stress of Covid-19. Narayan’s Class 10 board exams were disrupted due to the pandemic.
“We were caught off guard when exams were cancelled due to the pandemic. This time, we can focus on exams alone and don’t have to take extra stress about catching Covid or worry about meeting friends after a good exam,” said Narayan, whose first exam is scheduled to take place next week.
While exams of many subjects in both Class 10 and Class 12 were cancelled in 2020 after the imposition of the first lockdown, in 2021, no exam was conducted due to the second wave of the pandemic. To avoid a repeat of 2021, CBSE decided to conduct exams in two terms for the 2022 batch, which led to glitches and drew opposition from some quarters.
School administrators said the relief this time was the absence of uncertainty. Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School in Rohini, said, “There is no stress related to the pandemic. Although the second-term took place in person last year as well, the fear of Covid was in the air,” said Arora.
CBSE examination controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said, “To ensure students are appearing without any stress, CBSE has fixed the timetable in a way that they get sufficient time for preparation in all subjects.”
To be sure, the CBSE Class 12 board exams have lost some of their significance with an extrance test determining most college admissions since last year.
