Several parents of students who are yet to appear for their ICSE examinations, started a Twitter trend on Friday, seeking cancellation of the exams, owing to a rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
Stating that parents were not ready to take the risk of exposing children to the virus, questioned the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE)’s decision to cancel the examinations on March 19, when there were 236 COVID-19 cases while currently it is over 3 lakh cases.
“We do not have the infrastructure to conduct these examinations safely. Answer scripts, threads, question papers are handled by a large number of people which increases the chance of COVID-19 exponentially. Is it worth the risk?” parents said in a statement.
It read, “In this time and age, can we not find a solution which does not affect the psychological and physical well-being of our kids? What is the lesson we are teaching our kids? Is health not before anything else?”
With #Cancel10thICSEboards trending, several Twitter users urged the council to “save students”.
Twitter user Shailaja Pai said, “How will you ensure that every student, invigilator, teacher, staff entering every examination centre is not an asymptomatic carrier and will not spread the virus to others?”
Another user, Riya posted, “Jeopardizing students lives just for the sake of marks? You all aren’t looking out for our future, you are sabotaging it by putting our lives at stake.”