Exam / Govt grants exemption from lockdown measures to hold Board exams with conditions

New Delhi: Class 10 and 12 board exams have been granted exemption from lockdown measures and these can be conducted, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday, adding that special buses for students will be arranged by the respective state governments.

"Taking into consideration academic interest of large number of students, it has been decided to grant exemption from lockdown measures to conduct Board examinations for Classes 10 and 12," Amit Shah tweeted.

The Home Minister said some conditions - such as social distancing, the use of hand sanitisers and the wearing of face masks - would be made mandatory. States will be required to arrange special buses to take students to and from exam centres, he said.

Mr Shah attached a letter from Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to his state counterparts, in which it was also said thermal screening was compulsory at all exam centres and that exam schedules would have to be staggered.

The government has also said that no exam centres will be permitted in containment zones.

On Monday the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Examinations) said 29 pending exams for the two classes would be conducted between July 1 and July 15.

"The Class 10 exams will be staggered on four dates starting July 1. First paper will be Social Sciences, while the next day students will be required to appear for Science exam," Sanyam Bhardwaj, the Controller of Examination, CBSE said.

The results are likely to be announced in August, shortly before the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) declare their entrance test results.

Six Class 10 and twelve Class 12 exams had been postponed following the coronavirus lockdown, while other Class 10 exams were deferred after the violence that broke out in parts of Delhi in February.

Schools across the country have been closed since mid-March, when the centre announced a lockdown to break the COVID-19 chain of transmission. The lockdown, now extended to May 31, is being lifted in phases with a number of activities allowed in "green" zones.

However, educational institutions are not among those allowed to re-open just yet.