The Maharashtra school education department is mulling over postponing Class 10 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Class 12 Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) board offline examinations amidst a surge in COVID-19 cases in the state, said sources from the department.
A meeting to discuss a plan for SSC and HSC board exams and, to finalise the roadmap for exams of Classes 9 and 11 students was conducted on Tuesday by Varsha Gaikwad, state school education minister with all the stakeholders. A senior official of the state school education department said, "We will conduct a discussion with the Chief Minister (CM) of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray regarding postponement of SSC and HSC board offline examinations."
The official added, "A final decision regarding SSC and HSC board exams will to taken only after the meeting with the chief minister is concluded." Currently, HSC board theory exams are scheduled to begin from April 23 to May 21, 2021 and SSC board theory exams will be conducted from April 29 to May 20, 2021, via offline mode in Maharashtra.
On the other hand, students have been staging repeated protests in different parts of Maharashtra demanding that SSC and HSC board exams should be conducted via online mode to avoid Covid-19 risks. On Tuesday, over 30,000 tweets were posted under #CancelBoardExams2021 within one hour of an online protest staged by students.
