The Maharashtra Government has urged the ICSE, CBSE Boards to delay the remaining exams and appealed to them in writing to not hold exams as per the newly announced schedule in July. They have requested the board to either delay the exams or mark the students on their internal assessments for this whole year but they will not permit the exams to be conducted in the month of July in view of the current COVID-19 situation.

 The letter written by the state government to the board committee stated about the potential problems students would be facing to travel to their respective exam centres amidst the coronavirus pandemic. They also said that conducting the exams at this time would pose a threat to the health of many students. Thus, the government has decided to not allow the boards to conduct exams in July considering the high amount of risks involved, according to the HT report.

Two options have been given to the board committee where either they can push the exams dates and conduct it when there is an improvement in the situation of the state or to evaluate the students on the basis of their internal assignments.

The exams that were going to be conducted on March 19 and March 31, 2020, were rescheduled by ICSE on May 22.

6 ICSE papers have been postponed while 8 papers of ISC have been rescheduled. However, the Board announced the new schedule where the ICSE exams would be conducted between July 2 and 12 while the ISC papers would now be held between July 1 and 14. CBSE also informed about conducting the remaining exams between July 1 and 15.

An ICSE board member stated that since so many exams are left to be conducted, it was not possible for them to cancel the examinations.

“We have already told students in a circular released last month that in a situation wherein they cannot write the exam, they can send a representation through the school and the board would allow them to appear for the exam at the time of compartmental exams conducted at a later date. If internal exam marks are considered, many parents would object to it again,” a senior board official was quoted in a report from HT.

The state government has requested the Board to provide them with the data of the students who have appeared in the exams of both class 10(ICSE) and 12(ISC) and has decided to hold a video conference with the heads of the Board on June 6, Saturday.

The department of education has mentioned that after the board decisions, they would plan the first-year admissions to junior college. Earlier, the SSC, as well as the IGCSE boards, had also called off their remaining papers in view of the COVID-19 crisis.