The Delhi government has suggested the Centre to promote the students of classes 10 and 12 on the basis of the performance in internal exams as it is not feasible now to conduct board exams which are pending due to the lockdown imposed to curb the COVID-19 spread.

Some papers of board exams are yet to be conducted after the state governments imposed restrictions and closed down schools in March to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The restrictions were further streamlined and imposed nationwide by the Centre on March 25 which will continue till May 3. There has been no clarification whether the lockdown will be extended or the restrictions will ease. 

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Tuesday hosted a video conference of education ministers of states and UTs to discuss the current situation. 

During the video conference, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia recommended that students of classes 10, 12 should be promoted on the basis of performance in internal exams like it was done for classes 9, 11. 

"It will not be feasible now to conduct pending board exams for classes 10, 12," he said. 

"The curriculum for the next academic session should be reduced by 30% and competitive exams like JEE, NEET be conducted on the basis of reduced syllabus," he added.

Sisodia also put forward the Delhi government's demand of airtime on Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) for broadcasting of on-air classes by teachers of its schools.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had earlier this month announced that it will be conducting pending board exams for only 29 subjects, which are crucial for promotion and admission in undergraduate programmes. 

However, there is no clarity on the timeline as no announcement has been made yet. The HRD Ministry has assured that students will be given at least a 10-day notice before the conduct of exams.

At the video conference on Tuesday, Pokriyal appealed to all the states to start the process of evaluation of answer sheets of board exams and facilitate CBSE to evaluate answer sheets of the students in their respective States.

Pokhriyal said that our whole efforts should be that our 33 crore students do not face any difficulty and can continue their education. For this, various efforts are being made to strengthen the online education platforms like DIKSHA, Swayam, SwayamPrabha, Vidyadaan 2.0, E-Pathshala, Educational TV Channel of Doordarshan, DishTV, Tata Sky, Jio, Airtel DTH etc, according to a press release by the HRD Ministry.

The minister also said that apart from this, alternative academic calendar has also been released by NCERT which states can adopt according to their local situation.