In a first, Class 10 exams have been cancelled because of the surge in COVID-19 cases across the country. Also, Class 12 board exams have been deferred after a meeting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi held with his top ministers this morning. The statement released by the prime minister’s office said, “the well being of students has to be the top priority for the government” and that the Centre would keep in mind the best interests of students.

Soon after the announcement, Education Minister Pokhriyal Nishank tweeted: “The Board Exams for Class Xth to be held from 4th May  to June 14th, 2021 are hereby cancelled.” And added that the “results of Class Xth Board will be prepared on the basis of an objective criterion to be developed by the Board.”

Also Read | ‘Class 12 students are immune to COVID?’: Twitter reacts after CBSE cancels Class 10 exams

The pandemic years

Last year, the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 24 to check the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement was made by the government while students of Class X and XII were in the middle of board exams.  

On April 1, 2020 the CBSE board postponed all examinations that were to be held between March 19 and March 31, 2020. The board announced that it would conduct exams only for “main subjects required for promotion and maybe crucial for admissions in higher educational institutions”.

Also Read | Has ICSE cancelled class 10 board exams? Check here

A total of 12 exams were to be held at unannounced later dates for students of Class XII, and an additional 11 were to be conducted for students of that grade from North East Delhi, where the exams were postponed due to riots in that part of the capital. For Class X students, no more exams were held except the six for students from the riot-hit North East Delhi.

The board had then announced that the remaining examinations would be conducted between July 1 and 15. However, with the surge in coronavirus cases,  the board announced in June 2020 that it would not conduct any exams and would evaluate students through an alternate marking system, a formula to impute the marks of students in papers in which they did not appear.

According to this formula, the marks in each remaining paper were calculated by taking the average of best three papers for students who had written four papers; of two best papers for those who had written three; and including internal marks for those students who had written two or less papers.

The board did not release a “merit list” of toppers, and also announced that the term “fail” would not be used in any student’s documents or on the results released on the website. Instead, the students who could not pass, were marked as “Essential Repeat” candidates.

Also Read | CBSE Class 10 exam cancelled: Here is how the students will be assessed

In September 2020, the board held its compartment examinations online and optional “improvement exams” for Class XII students. These were optional for those who wished to improve the scores that they received on the basis of the board’s revised marking scheme. More than 9,000 students opted for the option. This option, however,  was not available to Class X students.

The board exams have seen a lot of twists and turns in its standard practices, partly because of change at the Centre and now because of the once-in-a-century pandemic, which has turned the world upside down.

Kapil Sibal’s formula

Earlier in the 2010-2011 academic session, in a bid to reform the education system in the country, the then Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal had scrapped the Class 10 board examination, calling it a “trauma for both parents and students.”

A nine-point grading system was introduced for CBSE class X from that year. These grades, A1 (for grade point 10), A2 (for grade point nine), B1 (eight), B2 (seven), C1 (six), C2 (five), D (four), E1 and E2 were to be corresponded to respective attributes and marks ranges – exceptional (91 to 100 per cent marks); excellent (81 to 90), very good (71 to 80), good (61 to 70), fair (51 to 60), average (41 to 50), below average (33 to 40); students with E1 grade (21 to 32 per cent marks) were to be marked “need improvement”; those with E2 (marks ranging from 0 to 20 per cent) were marked “unsatisfactory”.

Also Read | CBSE board exams: Kejriwal, Sisodia welcome decision, Priyanka Gandhi says it’s ‘unfair’ for class 12

As per the grading system, students with lowest grades were also promoted to class XI, but were required to improve their performance through two chances.

Boards brought back

While the students were still adapting to this new grading system, Smriti Irani from the BJP took over as the education minister in 2016 and decided to twist the fate of students, yet again. Boards exams were back. The CBSE highest “unanimously approved” an education ministry’s proposal of restoring the Class 10 board exams, after a gap of six years.