No CBSE board exams till February: Ramesh Pokhriyal

New Delhi: Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Tuesday said the coming CBSE board exams will not be held until February 2021. A decision on when to start the exams will be taken by the government later, he said.

Pokhriyal held a live interaction with teachers on the upcoming board exams on Tuesday. Prior to this, he had interacted with students regarding entrance exams and online classes.

Teachers across the country have been sharing their concerns and suggestions on Twitter by using #EducationMinisterGoesLive. Their main concerns are regarding upcoming CBSE and state board syllabus, exam patterns and exam dates. The government has not shared the schedule for the CBSE Board examinations 2021 till now which has been making students and their parents anxious.

"The Classes 10 and 12 CBSE board exams 2021 will not be held in January and February. The exact exam schedule will be decided after February 2021," said Ramesh Pokhriyal.

Cancelling exams and promoting students without exam will put a stamp on these students. These students might face trouble in getting jobs and admissions at higher education level in future as they would be termed as Covid-era students. We do not want that for our students," he added.

The Minister said that the exam will be conducted offline as 'we need a laptop and stable internet and electricity for each student which is a challenge.' "A percentage of students do not have equal access to education. While we have used unique methods to teach students but having such methods for exams might not be fair," he said.

The CBSE board exams will be conducted on a reduced syllabus. There will also be 33% internal choices in the exam, said Pokhiryal. 30% of the total syllabus has been scrapped and some states have also declared the same while others are likely to make an announcement soon.

He informed about the training imparted to the teaching faculty across the nation to conduct online classes by the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT).

The Minister said, "CBSE has trained 4.80 lakh teachers in online education teaching. Training of teachers in online education is critical. Schools are yet to resume to their full capacities. Several platforms like 'Nishtha' has been launched for the benefit of teachers." "NCERT has been providing online content. Various regional schools and educational boards have uploaded their curriculum on DIKSHA platform", Pokhriyal added.

Various teachers have also complained about difficulties faced by them during the online classes including the internet connectivity, lack of access to proper mobile phones or laptops.

They have also raised concern about lack of practical sessions held in 2020 and have requested to do away with the practical examinations for CBSE Board exams 2021.