Students, who fall under the private category as per the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), staged an online protest and later staged a protest outside the CBSE headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday demanding they should not be forced to appear for Class X and Class XII examinations.
These protests were conducted in response to the CBSE decision released on Wednesday which stated, "There are two types of students whose examinations are conducted by CBSE. Regular students are those who are studying in CBSE affiliated schools and are appearing for Class X or Class XII exams for the first time. Private candidates or students under the private category are those who were regular students in CBSE earlier and failed to qualify in the first or second attempt of board exams, and those who had qualified earlier but want to improve their results."
The CBSE further said, "CBSE will declare results of regular students of Class X and Class XII as per the assessment policy because examinations have been cancelled this year due to Covid-19 pandemic. For students under the private category, the board will conduct exams between August 16 and September 15, 2021 and results will be declared in the minimum possible time to avoid any difficulty in admission for higher education."
Following this decision, students who fall under the private category staged a protest stating the Covid-19 pandemic is still on and they should not be forced to appear for exams. A student on request of anonymity said, "The threat of Covid-19 infection is still on. One one side, the Central government is warning us about the advent of a third wave of Covid-19 while on the other, they are compelling us to appear for exams amidst risks."
Another student said, "The assessment policy should be applied to students under the private category as well and we should not be forced to appear for exams amidst the Covid-19 pandemic situation."
The CBSE board said, "In case of regular students, schools have conducted unit tests, mid-term and pre-board exams and thus performance of students is available. However, in case of students under private category, neither schools nor CBSE have the desired records based on which assessment can be done without the conduct of examination. Thus, tabulation or assessment policy cannot be implemented."
