Due to an increase in the number of Covid cases in the state, the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) announced on Saturday that board examinations for Class 10 students have been cancelled, and an exam for Class 12 students is proposed for the second week of July, if the situation permits. Exams for Class 12 have been reduced in length from 3.15 hours to 90 minutes. Only three questions will be asked in one paper this year.
The state government has also decided that students in grades 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 will be promoted without having to take an exam.
Exams for classes 10 and 12 were scheduled to begin on May 8, but were postponed in April due to the second wave of the coronavirus.
On May 26, UP Education Minister Dinesh Sharma announced that the state has already allocated 8,513 board exam centres and ordered the question papers. Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma said, “We have already printed the papers, made sets of decoded copies, and allocated 8,513 centres to follow social distancing during examinations.”
On the same day, Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh noted that the state had held panchayat elections and that board exams would not be difficult to hold. “Once the education department has finalised (the dates for the 12th board exams), the health department will look into how to keep COVID protocols in [exam] centres. We’ve used COVID protocols to conduct panchayat polls and other programmes. So it won’t be a problem for us,” Mr Singh explained.
This year’s Uttar Pradesh Class 10 and 12 board exams have a total of 56,03,813 candidates registered. According to official data, 29,94,312 students in Class 10 will be promoted to the next class without taking exams this year. The final exams for Class 12th UPMSP will be taken by 26,10,316 students.
