'Class 12 boards should have been cancelled much before'

New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday said the Centre should have taken the decision to cancel the Class 12 board exams much before, instead of waiting for the Supreme Court's intervention.

Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister for Delhi, said he is glad that his suggestion of evaluating the Class 12 students on the basis of their marks for Classes 10, 11 and the pre-boards exams has been taken into account.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that it will be adopting a 30:30:40 formula for the evaluation of Class 12 students, based on their results of Classes 10, 11 and 12 respectively.

Thirty per cent marks will be based on the Class 10 board exams, another 30 per cent from Class 11 and 40 per cent marks on the basis of their performance in the unit, mid-term and pre-board tests of Class 12. The exams for Class 12 were cancelled by the CBSE on June 1 in view of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The decision to cancel the board exams was a welcome one, keeping in mind the safety and security of our 1.5 crore Class 12 students. The evaluation criteria which we had suggested, looking at the student performance in classes 10, 11, 12, has been taken into account," Sisodia said in a statement.

"We should have considered cancelling the board exams long time back, instead of waiting for the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter. It is unfortunate that the Supreme Court and the state governments had to intervene and protest for cancelling the board exams. If our central government had adopted a more humane approach and heard the plea of our students, we could have managed the situation better. Nevertheless, I am happy that this decision was finally taken in the interest of our students," he added.

Stressing upon the need to adopt a similar or improved criteria for assessment in 2022, Sisodia said, "While we have made a detailed evaluation criteria for this year's board exams owing to these unprecedented conditions, similarly, we have to look at developing a criteria for assessing students in the board classes next year. We cannot think that normal conditions will prevail anytime soon." "To avoid another situation next year where we have to rush and take decisions with regard to administering the board exams, we should already start developing a plan taking into account the online exams and the modalities to conduct assessments and projects if schools have to open partially. We have to accept the reality of the pandemic and understand that it might linger for a longer period of time and decide on a scheme which will evaluate the students in the board classes.

"What has happened this year is not feasible every year. We have to take well thought-out decisions for the best interest of our students," he added.