Odisha, on Friday, cancelled its Class XII board exams in view of the coronavirus pandemic while Karnataka maintained that the Class X exams will be conducted in multiple choice questions format in the third week of July.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the safety of students is more important than the examinations. The state government has already cancelled the Class X board examination, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education.
The Karnataka government announced that the SSLC or Class X examination will be held in the third week of next month while cancelling the second year pre-university course (PUC) exams this year in view of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PUC second year students will be promoted to the next level and the grading will be based on their performance in the first PUC exam.
"The SSLC exam will have one multi-choice question paper for mathematics, science and social science and one more question paper for languages," Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar said.
The multi-choice question paper, bearing 40 marks, will be easy and straight and there will not be any indirect questions, he said.
Kumar said there will be a supplementary examination for those students who are affected by COVID-19. The exam results will be out by August.
The exams will be conducted in 6,000 centres, which is double last year, the minister said, adding, each room will have 10 to 12 students.
Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh on Thursday announced cancellation of class 12 board examinations while the Assam government said it will take a decision after the CBSE announces modalities for marking the students.
Following the Centre's decision to cancel class 12 CBSE board exams in view of the pandemic, six states—Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa and Uttarakhand—called off their board exams on Wednesday while few others said they will take a call soon.
The Centre, on Tuesday, decided to cancel the CBSE Class XII board exams amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic across the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that the decision has been taken in the interest of students and the anxiety among students, parents and teachers must be put to an end. Soon after, CISCE had also announced cancellation of its board exams.
