Min reviews ways to hold Class 12 exams online

Class 12 board exam, which was originally scheduled for May 5, has been deferred by the state still further orders in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. As there was no clue when the board exams would be conducted, the review meeting, led by new Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi assumed significance. 

Stating that the government is keen to ensure the health and safety of the students, Poyyamozhi said the first round of review meeting was held with the authorities concerned to seek their opinions with regard to conducting board exams for Class 12 students. “There would be series of review meeting in the coming days,” he said adding “all the valid opinions from the officials will be taken into consideration.” 

He said that the government will take a good decision with regard to the conduct of board exams at the right time and at the same time the process would be expedited. “We are also looking at models of other states, which conducted the board exams,” he added. 

A senior official from School Education Department, seeking anonymity, told DT Next that though at present it will not be possible for the government to conduct exam unless there was a drastic reduction in the coronavirus cases, he said, “the authorities were determined to conduct the board exams as it would be vital for the students, who proceed to get admissions in the higher educational institutions.” 

Pointing out that conducting online board exams like it was done for college students will also be worked out, he said, “the only issue was that is to organise the online exams for the students in government and government-aided schools due to poor infrastructure.” 

Claiming that the Directorate of Government examinations had completed all the work related to conducting board exams, the official said, “only a few remaining works, including distributing hall tickets and preparing exams halls were still left.” 

He said if normalcy could not be restored in a few weeks, the authorities might also request Universities to postpone admissions for first-year students. 

“However, the online classes for Class 12 students would continue till the exams were conducted for them,” he said adding “schools especially self-finance institutions were also strictly instructed not to call students to conduct physical classes even before 12 noon.”