With the cancellation of the CBSE class 12th examination, the students are finally relieved from the persisting fear and anxiety that consumed them throughout the second wave.
However, given one full year of the intermittent pandemic’s wave teething up the nation, the centre has not yet reached a firm objective of assessing Class 12th students’ performance. Almost 1.4 million Students are rendered uncertain about the whole assessment procedure that isn’t spelt out anywhere.
While those who were to appear for CBSE and CISCE examinations are stifled to brace for the upcoming assessment challenges, Bihar and Kerala state boards have already conducted exams in part or full procedures while Assam and Tripura are thwarting the examinations and waiting for the pandemic to ebb.
Just when the exuberance of relief was broadcasted with full coverage all over the news, the unpreparedness following the contingent lax by the centre in drafting the future picture is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Numerous petitions and appeals were filed in the SC, fearing that physical, written examinations could end up becoming super-spreader events for students. The centre that finally after repeated entreaties gave a full nod for the cancellation, had not chalked out the objective criteria of the assessment until Advocate Mamata Sharma filed another petition in the SC.
The Board is expected to announce the module for evaluating students. The SC set a 2-week deadline for the centre to frame “a well-defined objective criteria” for CBSE and CISCE class 12th students assessment. Class 12th students nationwide are earnestly concerned about college admissions in India as well as abroad.
The concerns of CBSE and ICSE students have taken them to an unforeseen juncture. At the same time, it remains unclear how the centre will react to state boards since many are planning to hold examinations after the second wave subsides.
Mamata Sharma’s petition that sought a stark objective assessment scheme within a specified period was asked to be patient in the court, citing that her petition was “asking for heaven”.
The bar (lawyers) asserted on settling the CBSE and CISCE issue before addressing the interests of the student community left to appear for state board examinations. The centre failed to hold the state boards accountable with students dangling at the ticking needle of the clock since these schools are manoeuvring to hold exams after the wave abates.
On the other hand, the SC has conveyed concerns for them but wants it to be addressed duly after maintaining a decision for CBSE and CISCE first.
Last year, when CBSE scrapped class the 10th exam and devised an assessment scheme for Class 12th based on papers already given and overall performance of the year, the centre stood at the same spot with a slender plan of assessment after one brief year that sets mammoth pressure on students who expected better out of the centre’s comprehension for this session.
A lapsed approach by the centre and the prolonged court hearings will ultimately roil the long-sustaining patience and the future canvass of students thriving to apply in colleges not just in India but also elsewhere in the world.
An alarming need for a well-defined, error-free objective criterion is envisaged to ensure objectivity and satisfaction amongst students that should have been the pre-requisite framework slated by the centre for the session of 2020–21.
The accruing unpreparedness by the centre sunk its accountability during the pandemic while the students have been shouldering the burden of competitive and entrance exams, uncertain about what ensues next in the court hearing that is strongly subjected to CBSE, CISCE and state board conundrums.