‘Class XII exams once Covid under control’, says Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani – Times of India

Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani on Saturday said that the Class XII board examinations would be held.

“The exams, however, will be conducted once the Covid situation is under control,” he added.

The state education department had earlier cancelled the Class X exams and promoted all regular students to Class XI due to the Covid-19 situation in the state.

Some 1.35 lakh students in the Class XII science stream and 5.5 lakh in the Class XII general stream are expected to take the board exams this year.

“The government hoped to conduct the exams in June and an announcement on this was expected on May 15. However, due to the prevailing Covid-19 crisis, the dates were to be announced later,” said sources in the education department.

The Central Board for Secondary Education is likely to decide on holding Class XII exams on May 25, a source said.

Once a decision on the Class XII board exams is taken, the government will announce dates for the Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GujCET).

The state-level exam is held every year for science students seeking admissions to engineering and pharmacy courses at government, grant-in-aid, and self-financed engineering colleges in Gujarat.

A merit list for college admissions is drawn by giving 40% weight to the percentile obtained by the candidate in GujCET and 60% weight to their percentile in the Class XII (science) board exams.

The decision to suspend the Class XII exams was taken at the core committee meeting chaired by chief minister Vijay Rupani, education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and a few other senior government officials.

The board exams for Class X, which had been scheduled for May 10 to 25, had been cancelled due to the corona outbreak. The state education department will review the situation at a later time and decide on the fate of ‘repeater’ and external Class X students.

The government had earlier announced mass promotions for students of Classes I to IX and XI to the next class.

“The Class XII exams will likely be pushed to July,” said sources in the education department.