Maharashtra Postpones Class 10, Class 12 Exams For State Board Students

Class 10 and 12 exams of Maharashtra State Board students that were supposed to start from the end of April 2021 have now been pushed to June and end of May respectively , Maharashtra's School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said on Monday. This decision comes as Maharashtra has been reporting more than 50,000 COVID-19 cases since the last six days.

Owing to the rising cases, the decision was taken after a meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The education department is also going to write to the ICSE, CBSE, and Cambridge boards to reconsider their board exam dates due to the COVID-19 situation in the state.

Gaikwad also stated that the department discussed the current prevailing situation with all the stakeholders including students, teachers, parents, elected representatives from across parties, academicians and tech giants before reaching this conclusion to postpone the exams. Given the rising cases, "this is the most pragmatic solution," Gaikwad added.

Class 12- Higher Secondary Certificate exams were scheduled to take place between April 23 to May 21 while Class 10- Secondary School Certificate exams were scheduled between April 29 and May 20. They have now been pushed to the end of May and beginning of June respectively. The new dates are yet to be announced.

Maharashtra State Board had already decided to promote all the students currently between class 1 to 9 as well as class 11 to the next grade without any examinations. They even cancelled the practical exams for Class 10 students. The class 10 and 12 students were going to give their examinations from their own respective schools and junior colleges. Normally, for the board exams, students are assigned different schools and colleges for appearing for the boards. Students from containment zones were going to appear only in June but with the recent decision, all students will be giving their exam then.

Gaikwad hopes that this delay in the schedule will not affect the admission process of students seeking higher education both within Maharashtra and outside.