CBSE Cancels Class 10 Exams, Class 12 Optional: What Does it Mean?

The CBSE and ICSE board exams that were supposed to be held in July have been cancelled, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme court on Thursday, 25 June.

The Centre and the CBSE today told the SC that they will be not conducting board exams for class 10 at all and that for Class 12, it's “optional”.

How Will Class 10 Marks be Tallied?

For CBSE class 10, marks scored in past three exams will be taken in account. which means assessment of these marks will be the final result of class 10 students

What are Optional Exams for Class 12?

For class 12 students also, marks scored in the past exams will be taken in account but exams will be conducted for them which the students can choose to appear for or not

So basically, class 12 students have two options-

• They can choose to have assessment of their previous exams as their final score
• They can appear for exams later, whenever the board decides to conduct them and that will be considered their final score.

When will ‘Optional’ Class 12 Exams Be Conducted?

There's no clarity on it yet. SG Tushar Mehta told the court that exams will be conducted whenever the environment is 'conducive' to do so. The decision on it will be taken at the central government level.

When Will Results of Assessment Be Declared?

SG Tushar Mehta told the court that they will be declared by 15 July but the court argued that children have entrance exams to prepare for, so a notification by the board about the exact timeline including the declaration of results must be declared by 26 June. In short, the board will issue an official notification by 26 June giving all these details.

What About ICSE Board?

ICSE in the court said that it will follow the exact pattern like CBSE as far as exams and assessment of previous exams is concerned. Later they will decide whether to hold the optional board exams or not. And the notification clarifying these points will be issued on 26 June.

Now there are few questions that remain unanswered here. What about entrance exams that are conducted on the basis of class 12 exams like NEET or JEE Mains? What if they are conducted before the 'optional' class 12 exams? What if a particular student opting for an exam is in a containment zone? Will the entrance exams like NEET or JEE Main be postponed? etc etc.

So, while class 10 students can relax as they have no option of any exam at all, for class 12 students, the ball is in their court if they want to take a chance of waiting for the optional exams in future, the fate of which still stands uncertain, or go with the assessment of the scores of the previous exams.