Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), India’s biggest exam board, has decided not to conduct pending examinations for Grades 10 and 12 outside India, including the Gulf states, according to media reports.

The board had earlier postponed all the board examinations that were to be held between March 19 and March 31 this year.

“There are several CBSE schools located in 25 countries. Each of these countries are also under lockdown and/or have decided to close down the schools for various and differential lengths of time.

“Under such circumstances, it is felt that the Board will not be in a position to hold differential set of exams for each of these countries. Also, in the present situation, it will be difficult to bring the answer books to India for evaluation purposes. Therefore, the Board has decided to not hold any more exams for the students of class 10 and 12 schools located outside India,” the exam board said in a press release on Wednesday.

‘The system of marking/assessment for the purpose of declaring results will be worked out by the Board shortly and informed to these schools”.

With regards to students in India, the CBSE statement said that in view of the prevailing extraordinary circumstances of the worldwide spread of COVID-19 and the countrywide lockdown, the board exams of Class 10, 12, will be rescheduled and stated that the board will announce dates after consultations.

The statement also said all students from Class 1-8 will be promoted, while students of class 9 and 11 whether in India or abroad, who have not completed the exams, will be given marks based on internal assessment.

The board stated that it will conduct examinations for only main subjects that will be required for promotion and maybe crucial for admissions in higher educational institutions.

"For the rest of the subjects, it said it would not hold examinations; the instructions for marking/assessment in all such cases shall be separately issued by the Board," the CBSE said.

To avoid being misled by rumors, the Board urged all stakeholders to "only trust the official announcements by the Board that are made on the Board's website.