When Will Board Exams Happen? CBSE Students Plead for Clarity

CBSE Class 12 students say that lack of clarity around board exams is making stress around board exams only worse. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
Story Editor : Riniki Sanyal

Everytime an acquaintance utters the word board exam, a pall of gloom takes over Class 12 student Mehak Jain. A student of Delhi’s Tagore International School, Jain and many like her have slogged through online classes for almost ten months, hoping that by the end of this year, things would be better.

But if recent numbers of coronavirus infections are to be trusted, things have only become better for the virus and its serological conquests and much worse for students like Jain, who have diminishing sense of clarity on how and when board exams conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Exams would be conducted.

“Reminding us constantly of boards only stresses us out and that stress just increases when people tell us that we are not preparing enough for exams on which our entire life depends.”

Mehak Jain

While the CBSE says that board exams would be conducted “for sure” and the schedule for which would be “announced very soon”, all that Jain and those like her want to know is – when?

Will Board Exams Be Held Online?

For Shreyash Pandey, uncertainty over board exams is nothing short of a double-edged sword, dangling over the heads of thousands of students waiting to write competitive college entrance exams this year.

A student of Gyan Bharti School in Delhi’s Saket, Pandey is worried that delayed board exams could hamper his preparations for JEE Main 2021.

“If there’s a delay and if exams are to be held in March, then that, too should be clarified so that students preparing for competitive exams can divide time between these exams and board preparations.”

Shreyash Pandey

While Pandey is afraid that the smog of uncertainty may force him “to drop a year,” Class 12 student Raghav Sethi wants to know if the exams will be conducted online or offline.

“If CBSE is opting for an online platform, what is the method of maintaining the level of accuracy? How will papers be checked?” asks Sethi, a student of Springdales School in Delhi’s Pusa Road.

What About Practicals?

Following reports that the board would conduct practical exams for Class 12 from January to February 2021, CBSE had recently clarified that it has not announced any date for practical or written exams at the moment and that dates mentioned in the media were released before and hold no relevance in today’s time.

While this informed students that practicals won’t be conducted, many like Esha Sajjanhar are worried as to how they would be assessed for practicals which carry 30 marks – a number that many students hope to make the most of.

“Are we having practicals? when are we having them? Where are we having them? Do we have external examiners? When are we having the boards?”

Esha Sajjanhar, Genesis Global School, Noida

Mehak Jain says that students are confused about what and exactly how much students have to prepare for each subject.

“For example, case studies have been introduced in Maths, but which type of case studies will be there? How many specified MCQs are there?” she asks.