Govt postpones CBSE exams, JEE Mains till April amidst coronavirus outbreak

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has ordered the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to postpone all exams till March 31 as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus outbreak. JEE Mains, which is a big exam given by lakhs of engineering aspirants will also get postponed to a later date after March 31.

As per the released notice, all the educational institutes and examination boards such as NTA, NCTE etc, will postpone all their examinations to April. Also, as per the notification, it was stated that all the ongoing examinations might be rescheduled and would be conducted after March 31. Also, all the evaluation work is rescheduled after March 31. Not only this but on March 18, the Aligarh Muslim University has also announced that it was cancelling all the examinations including all university-level examinations and the Class 10 and Class 12 board exams.

Besides, the direct emphasis was also laid on the JEE Main examination. Since JEE Mains require a lot of travelling by examinees to different towns and the dates may clash with the rescheduled CBSE and various other board exams, therefore, JEE Mains should be rescheduled and a new date of JEE Mains will be announced on 31^st March after reassessment of the situation.

The Human Resource Development Ministry has also asked all the teachers and educational institutions to maintain effective communication with the students and to try to resolve any queries that come from the students. Students and parents are also advised not to panic and handle the situation calmly.

The CBSE’s announcement said that the postponement of the exams was being done as a precautionary measure against the spread of the novel coronavirus. The notice states:

1. All ongoing examinations of the board for classes X and XII, being held in examination centres in India and abroad, and rescheduled between 19.03.2020 to 31.03.2020 (both dates inclusive), shall be rescheduled after 31st March 2020.
2. During the aforementioned period, re-examinations that were rescheduled to be held for North-East Delhi candidates will also be further rescheduled.
3. All schools may ensure that this information is disseminated to all the concerned students from their respective schools.
4. Rescheduled dates will be communicated by the board to all its stakeholders by 31.03.2020 after re-assessment of the situation.
5. All ongoing board exams related evaluation work in various evaluation centres in the country are suspended up to 31st March 2020. All Centre Nodal Supervisors may ensure rescheduling of evaluation work from 1.04.20 unless otherwise informed by the Board.

To avoid the spread of coronavirus, most of the educational institutions in the country are closed till March 31. While, the maintenance of the academic calendars and exam schedule is important, equally important is the safety and security of the students who are appearing in the various exams and also their teachers as well as their parents.