PremiumThe Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) on Friday postponed the board exams for classes 10 and 12 amid an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases across the country.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), which conducts the ICSE tests, said that the new dates will be announced in the first week of June.
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Premium In a statement, the board said, "The Covid situation will be closely monitored and the deferment of the ICSE and ISC 2021 examinations will be reviewed and a final decision on the conduct of the examinations will be taken by the first week of June 2021."
CISCE will develop "a fair and unbiased criterion" for students who decide not to appear for the offline ICSE Class 10 board exam 2021.
The ICSE or Class 10 exam was scheduled to begin on 4 May and end by 7 June, while ISC or Class 12 exam was supposed to begin on 8 April and end by 18 June, 2021.
After CBSE announced its decision to cancel the 10th board exams and postpone the Class 12 board exams, many states announced their decisions to do the same, including Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Odisha, and others. The decision from CISCE was eagerly awaited by students.
The board exams have been deferred because of the nationwide Covid-19 spike that had led to demands by parents, students, politicians and various states for a government rethink.
India logged in a record 2,17,353 new Covid-19 cases as many states grappled with shortages of hospital beds, oxygen, medicines and vaccine shots. The daily new cases in the deadly second wave took the overall tally to 1.42 crore.
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