The central government has granted exemptions from the lockdown restrictions to conduct board examinations for Class 10 and 12 CBSE students. As the opening of schools is prohibited, the Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has issued certain guidelines to be followed during the conduct of the examinations. Following are the guidelines that need to be strictly followed at the examination centres:

a) Examination centres will not be permitted in the containment zones
b) It is mandatory for teachers, staff and students to wear masks
c) Provisions for thermal screening and hand sanitisers should be made at all centres and social distancing norms should be followed
d) The examination schedules by different boards should be staggered
e) Special buses may be arranged by the States and LITs for transportation of the students to the examination centres

The letter to chief secretary was tweeted by Amit Shah. He tweeted, “Taking into consideration the academic interest of large number of students, it has been decided to grant exemption from the lockdown measures to conduct Board examination for classes 10th & 12th, with few conditions like social distancing, face mask etc, for their safety.” (sic)

Sanyam Bhardwaj, controller of examination, CBSE told NDTV that class 10 exams will be staggered on four days starting July 1. “The first paper will be Social Sciences followed by science exam the next day,” he said. The results are likely to be announced in August, before the declaration of entrance examination results by IITs.

Schools across the country have been shut since mid-March after the Union government announced a lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown has now been extended till May 31 with some exemptions in ‘green’ zones. However, educational institutions have not been allowed to re-open yet.

Also read: CBSE pending examination: Students to carry sanitisers; wear masks