CBSE has considered the representations, and it is not going to cancel the Compartment exam; students move to SC again

Last Week, CBSE got several representations from parents to cancel the Compartment exam of Class 10th and 12th. But the CBSE, after considering the representations, has decided not to. Thus, students have moved to the Supreme Court once again. They are requesting that SC take the decision suo moto.

What is Suo Moto?

Suo Moto means that a court should take action of its own accord, without any request by the parties involved. 809 students from across the country have written a petition. They are requesting the SC to take suo moto cognisance of the CBSE’s decision to conduct the examinations.

Students' stand

Sandeep Saurav, National General Secretary of the All India Students Association filed the petition on behalf of the 809 students. The petition states that there while there is no update on the schedule of the compartment examination, most colleges have given examination deadlines.

The letter petition further states that this decision of CBSE:

"exposes students/parents/teachers and staff to a lot of risk in view of the exponential growth of the virus in the country."

The letter petition states that after CBSE declared its results as many as 2.5 lakh students have to write compartment exams. They have cited the increasing cases of COVID-19 in the country and asked the apex court to intervene. This decision of CBSE to keep the decision to conduct the examinations is life-threatening to students, students state. They have also shared examples of the Bihar and Telangana Board, which have cancelled the examinations due to the outbreak.

CBSE's stand on Compartment exam

CBSE has given a list of reasons why they will not cancel the compartment exam. It said that Uni Entrance exams, JEE Main, NEET-UG, JEE Advanced are to be conducted for higher education admissions. These will require the Board exams results. On the other hand, UGC has released the guidelines for the same in case of university admissions and exams.

Further, MHA has provided some exemptions after examining the requests of MHRD. This includes the conduct of exams and evaluation work subject to Standard Operating Procedures. In addition, in Unlock 3.0, Government has allowed various activities with complete precautions. And lastly, CBSE stated that the Supreme Court of India had directed the CBSE Board to declare the Board Results based on the assessment scheme in the exams scheduled from July 1 to 15, 2020. After that, the students would be allowed to appear in optional exams to improve their performances.

Thus, they stood firm on the ground of not cancelling compartment exam as this will affect the future of students.