Parties like the DMK and AAP also joined the growing chorus against the holding of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at a time when COVID-19 cases were rising across the country.

At a meeting convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on a range of issues ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, the seven chief ministers unanimously agreed on the need to file a review petition urging the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent order rejecting the postponement of the competitive exams.
Among the chief ministers who attended the meeting were West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackeray, who is heading the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, Punjab’s Amarinder Singh (Congress), Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren (JMM), Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot (Congress), Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel (Congress)and Puducherry’s V Narayanasamy (Congress).

A decision was taken to discuss the matter and evolve a joint strategy in this regard.

Sonia Gandhi said the Congress was on board on the issue and asked Banerjee, who proposed a joint appeal by the states in the apex court, to work out with Amarinder Singh and other chief ministers on the legal recourse. She said whatever steps need to be taken in the interest of students should be taken unitedly.

The Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said that the ministry was under so much pressure from the students and their parents to conduct JEE and NEET on the schedules dates. He also hinted that most students are ready and willing to write the examinations because most of them have downloaded the admit cards. “The Director-General of the NTA told me that around 7,50,000 JEE aspirants have downloaded their admit cards. This says that they want to write the exam,” he said.

However, a large number of students said that they downloaded the admit card just to know where their exam centre is and they still want the exam to be postponed. Interestingly, a lot of students took to social media, posting photographs of them burning their admit cards.

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He also informed that a few weeks ago, he invited suggestions from all educationists on the reduction of syllabus on social media by using #SyllabusForStudents2020. ShriNishank informed that we received more than 1.5K suggestions and expressed his gratitude to everyone for the overwhelming response.

The union Minister said that the changes made in the syllabi have been finalised by the respective Course Committees with the approval of the Curriculum Committee and Governing Body of the Board.
The revision of syllabi is a measure taken due to the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and at different parts of the world. Considering the importance of achieving the level of learning, the syllabus has been rationalised to the extent possible up to 30% by retaining the core concepts.

The Heads of Schools and Teachers have been advised by the Board to ensure that the topics that have been reduced are also explained to the students to the extent required to connect different topics. However the reduced syllabus will not be part of the topics for Internal Assessment and year-end Board Examination. Alternative Academic Calendar and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum using different strategies shall also be part of the teaching pedagogy in the affiliated schools.

For Elementary Classes (I-VIII) schools shall follow the Alternative Academic Calendar and Learning Outcomes specified by NCERT. The revised syllabus is available on CBSE Academic Website www.cbseacademic.nic.in

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— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 3, 2020
In his address to the students Shri Pokhriyal said that our priority during this epidemic is to ensure safety and academic welfare of students. We will ensure that while conducting the examination, we strictly follow the guidelines given by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Health Ministry so that students are kept away from the grip of this epidemic.

The Minister said that social distancing will also be followed in the examination centers and all other precautionary arrangements will also be made. Shri Pokhriyal advised all the students to remove all kinds of stress from their minds and pay attention to their studies. The National Testing Agency has prepared a testing App for all the candidates through which students can complete their preparations. In the end, the Minister wished all the students for their examinations.

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The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) inform the Supreme Court about its decision on the cancellation of the pending board examination for class 10 and 12.

The CBSE had on Tuesday informed the apex court that the decision-making process on whether to conduct CBSE 10, 12 Board exams from July 1-15 is in an advanced stage, after which the court deferred the hearing to Thursday at 2pm.

SC had last week asked CBSE to consider scrapping the class 10 and Class 12 board exams in view of the growing cases of coronavirus infections in the country.

CBSE had scheduled exams for remaining papers in July with CISCE following in its footsteps. CISCE, though, is allowing students to choose between appearing for the remaining papers or skip exams and get evaluated on the basis on internal marks.

Apart from the board exams, students are looking forward to a similar announcement from National Testing Agency (NTA) on JEE Main and NEET UG exams.

JEE Main is held for admission to undergraduate engineering and technical courses. NEET UG is held for admission to MBBS and BDS courses. JEE Main is also an eligibility exam for JEE Advanced, the entrance test for admission to IITs.

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The class 10 and 12th board exams will be conducted for the remaining 29 papers from July 1 to July 15, 2020, at various centres.

The CBSE date sheet for class 10 and 12th board exams was earlier scheduled to be released on May 16, 2020, at 5 Pm.

Earlier, in a tweet, the HRD Minister had said that due to the current situation, the CBSE will conduct board examinations for only 29 main subjects which are required for promotion and crucial for admissions to the next session.

CBSE Class 10 board exams:

To be conducted for North East Delhi: Hindi Course A, Hindi Course B, English Communication, English Language and Literature, Science, and Social Science.
CBSE Class 12 board exams:

1. To be conducted for the whole of India: Business Studies, Geography, Hindi (Elective), Hindi (Core), Home Science, Sociology, Computer Science (Old), Computer Science (New), Information Practice (Old), Information Practice (new), Information Technology, and Bio-Technology.

2. To be conducted for North East Delhi: English Core, Mathematics, Economics, Biology, Political Science, History, English Elective – N, English Elective -C, Physics, Accountancy, and Chemistry.

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Therefore following further precautionary measures are required to be taken by all educational institutions and examination boards under the Ministry of HRD.

1. All ongoing examinations may be rescheduled after 31st March 2020,this would include CBSE NIOS as also University examinations.

2. All evaluation work may be rescheduled after 31st March, this would include evaluation work of CBSE, NIOS as also University exams.

3. Since JEE mains may require travel by examinees to different towns and the dates may clash with rescheduled CBSE and other board exams therefore, JEE mains should be rescheduled and new date of JEE mains will be announced on 31st March after reassessment of situation.

All educational institutions and examination boards have been requested to maintain regular communication with the students and teachers through electronic means and keep them fully informed so that there is no anxiety amongst the students, teacher and parents.

All Institutions have also been requested to notify helpline numbers/emails which student can access for their queries.

Keeping in view the health concerns of Students, I directed CBSE and NIOS to postpone exams and evaluation till 31st March 2020. I request all Students to follow the health advisory issued by @MoHFW_INDIA.@narendramodi@PMOIndia @drharshvardhan@PIB_India @DDNewslive
— Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) March 18, 2020.

Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has appealed to all the students, teachers and parents not to panic as MHRD is committed to ensure safety and security of students as also the maintenance of academic calendar and all possible steps will be taken in this regard.

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On Wednesday however, he had said the exams will be conducted as per the schedule after the CBSE announced it has postponed exams till 31 March.

Tribhuvaneshwar Saran Singh Deo, Health Minister of Chhattisgarh, said the state has the capacity to treat 450 patients infected by the novel coronavirus. Deo further said the state was equipped to quarantine 1,500 patients and another 60 hospital beds have also been facilitated in this regard.

The state health department also formed ‘First Rapid Response Team’ on 27 January and started issuing advisories for awareness.

“Till date there has been no confirmed case of coronavirus in Chhattisgarh, yet I want to reassure my people that we are fully equipped to deal with any eventuality. I request you all to be cautious and follow all the necessary precautions. We are in it together,” tweeted Deo.

Every week we are taking random samples from various sites and testing them, so far we have no case of community transmission,” Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, head of ICMR- NIV said.

For now, tests are being conducted in 52 sites across the country. Gangakhedkar said that the number of sites will be increased to 100 in the coming weeks.

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The students will be notified by their respective Universities accordingly.The number of new cases reported is sharply lower than the daily updates of recent weeks.

The death toll from China’s new coronavirus epidemic jumped to 2,112 on Thursday after 108 more people died in Hubei province, the hard-hit epicentre of the outbreak.

Most of the deaths were in the provincial capital Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, according to the daily update from the Hubei health commission.

More than 74,500 people have now been infected with the new coronavirus nationwide.Hubei health officials said there had been 615 new cases in Wuhan and 13 more elsewhere in the province.

However, the Hubei health commission said it was reducing the number of previously reported cases in a number of cities in the province by 279.

The adjustment meant a net increase on Thursday of 349 new cases across the province.

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