Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) or Maharashtra Board has decided to cancel the SSC or class 10 exams 2021 due to the rising COVID-19 cases. Maharashtra Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad took to Twitter to announce the cancellation of Class 10 board exams. “Given the worsening situation of the #Covid-19 pandemic, the Maharashtra government has now decided to cancel the state board exams for class 10th.
She also added that The health & safety of our students and teachers is our topmost priority. As the current atmosphere is not conducive to exams, we had earlier postponed our exams while requesting other boards to reschedule theirs. In response to our communication, other boards have now cancelled their exams, so maintaining parity, we have cancelled ours too.
Students can also check the official notification here :
Public health minister Rajesh Tope after the cabinet meeting said that class X exams will not be held instead all students will be promoted to class XI. However, the decision whether to conduct assessment will be taken by the school education department. He also said that class XII examination will be held once the Covid situation gets improved.
Meanwhile, school education minister Varsha Gaikwad on social media stated, “We will work out a process to mark students based on internal assessments and announce it soon. We will also consider giving students a chance to appear for the exam if they wish to. Details for the same will be discussed and worked out with experts.”
Furthermore, Gaikwad said that the process of awarding marks based on internal assessment will be announced soon and a decision on re-examination of students who are unhappy with the marks they receive, will also be taken at a later date. While parents and teachers have expressed joy in the news, educationists are pointing out a grim reality that marks based on internal assessment may not be possible in many cases because there are students who have neither attended online classes nor enough offline classes.
Moreover, none of the baseline tests or cumulative assessments was held this year for the students hence further raising questions about the fairness of the internal marking system. The class X marks are important as many students, from rural areas, migrate to cities for their junior college admissions, where cut-off marks in renowned colleges are high.
