The Central Board of Secondary Education has postponed the Class 10 and 12 board examinations scheduled for Wednesday in 86 centres in northeast Delhi due to the violence that has rocked those areas for the third straight day.
Examinations will be conducted as usual in the rest of the city. The rescheduled date for students in affected areas is yet to be announced by the CBSE.
The decision has been taken “based on the request of the Directorate of Education, Government of Delhi and to avoid inconvenience to students, staff and parents,” according to a notification issued by CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi on Tuesday night.
Earlier in the evening, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced that schools in the violence-affected northeast district of Delhi would remain closed. He said internal examinations had been postponed and urged the CBSE also to postpone board examinations.
While the board examinations began on February 15, the schedule has so far been mostly restricted to vocational subjects with fewer candidates. On Tuesday, none of the examinations was scheduled to be held in centres in the affected areas anyway.
On Wednesday, however, Class 10 students are scheduled to write examinations in English Language and Literature and English Communicative. Class 12 students have papers in Media and Web Application.
A number of students complained on Twitter that they live in the affected areas, but have examination centres in other parts of the city. Several pointed out that with curfew imposed in the area, they could not travel to their centres in safety.
Aam Aadmi Party MLA Atishi tweeted that Mr. Sisodia had raised the plight of these students with the CBSE as well. The CBSE is yet to respond.
Full details of the 86 centres where examinations have been postponed are available at cbse.nic.in.