The Telangana government has decided to promote Class X students to the next higher class without Board exams in view of the spread of coronavirus.
It was also decided that students will be promoted to the next higher class based on the grades they got in internal assessment conducted by schools.
This was the outcome of an official meeting convened by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday.
A release said Mr. Rao decided to dispense with the rescheduled Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams after students took three papers and the remaining exams were postponed due to lockdown.
The exams were supposed to resume on Monday, but the High Court stopped them in GHMC limits of Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Rangareddy while allowing them in rest of the State. However, the State government took the stand that the exams could not be conducted in different phases as it would lead to needless confusion. In these circumstances, Mr. Rao convened a meeting with Education Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Special Chief Secretary (Education) Chitra Ramachandran where it was decided to do away with the exams altogether.
While promoting students to the next class, the 20% weightage of marks given for internal assessment by schools will be considered for grading them, sources said. The release added that there were 5.35 lakh Class X students in the State who were supposed to write exam for 11 papers in six subjects from March 19 to April 6. But, only three papers of two subjects were completed when the High Court directed the State government to postpone the exams in view of COVID spread.
The government filed a vacate stay petition on exams in the High Court in the second week of May and sought permission to resume them. While permitting exams after June first week, the court directed the government to review the COVID situation on June 3 to see if exams could be held from June 8. The court also directed the government to keep the exams on hold if the situation deteriorated.
The exams were rescheduled from June 8 to July 5 with at least two days gap between each paper and a commitment by government that advanced supplementary exams will be conducted for those students who could not appear. The supplementary exams will be treated on a par with regular exams.
In this background, Mr. Rao held the meeting on Monday to review the nationwide developments on Class X exams and the strategy to be adopted by the State government. It was decided after prolonged discussions to promote the students and take further view on degree, post-graduate and other higher exams based on emerging COVID situation.