No board exams in January or February, may be held later, Ramesh Pokhriyal says
During the webinar the education minister said that the class 10 and 12 board exams will not be held in January-February. The schedule of board exams will be decided in February, Pokhriyal said.
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Tuesday (December 22) interacted with teachers through a live webinar session on the upcoming board examinations. During the webinar the education minister said that the class 10 and 12 board exams will not be held in January-February. The schedule of board exams will be decided in February, Pokhriyal said.
"Cancelling exams and promoting students without exam will result in putting a stamp on these students. These students might face trouble in getting jobs and admissions at higher education level in future. We do not want that for our students. Thus, cancellation will not happen. Thus, board exams will be held but postponed. The class 10 and 12 board exams will not be held in Jan-Feb. But when exactly will the exams will be held will be decided after Feb, said Pokhriyal.
"Many countries have cancelled one entire academic year but our teachers continued to work hard and did not allow any candidate to waste their academic year. Teachers are no less than corona warriors for training 33 crore students across countries during this tough time," the Education Minister said.
Pokhriyal said a teacher is a key between the drafting of the national education policy (NEP) and its implementation on the ground. He said that implementation of a policy is tough task, but a must one.
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Training of teachers in online education is critical. We have launched several platforms including 'Nishtha'. CBSE has trained 4.80 lakh teachers in online education teaching, informed Pokhriyal during his live interaction with teachers. Due to the pandemic, education had moved to online platforms. Schools are yet to resume to their full capacities.
Pokhriyal also said that vocational training with an internship will be introduced for the students of class 6 onwards. This has been introduced under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
"We aim to implement vocational education for students in class 6 onwards in middle schools," he said.
The Education Minister said that not just tie-up with the industry but also knowledge of ancient India will be part of the education.
"We are the first country in the world which is introducing AI at the school level," he claims.
In his earlier interaction, the minister had said that further cuts in the syllabus of board exams cannot be ruled out. He also said that there could be an alternative to practical exams owing to the pandemic.
Pokhriyal said it was not mandatory to follow the earlier timetable and the examination schedule could be postponed. Further announcements on these lines is expected today.
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This move by the union minister comes in the wake of pending date announcement and confusion surrounding the exam schedule of CBSE board exams 2021. The minister had sought teachers' suggestions about the conduct of exams.
In his last webinar with students and parents, on December 10, the Education Minister answered questions about medical entrance tests, NEET 2021; engineering entrance test, JEE 2021 and board exams 2021.
Earlier on December 16, Pokhriyal announced that the JEE (Main) exams will now take place four times in a year. The decision was taken after the ministry examined the suggestions received for conducting the exams. The four exam sessions will be held in February, March, April, and May 2021.
The CBSE Class 10 and 12 exams are scheduled to be conducted next year through the paper-pen mode. Officials from the CBSE board have clarified that there is no proposal to conduct online exams.