Amit Shah shared a letter written by Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to state chief secretaries, informing them about the exemptions given for holding the examinations across the country with certain conditions.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday said the Home Ministry has granted exemptions from the lockdown to conduct board examinations for classes 10 and 12.
Shah shared a letter written by Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to state chief secretaries, informing them about the exemptions given for holding the examinations across the country with certain conditions.
"Taking into consideration the academic interest of large number of students, it has been decided to grant exemption from the lockdown measures to conduct Board examination for classes 10th & 12th, with few conditions like social distancing, face mask etc, for their safety," Shah said in the tweet.
In his letter to chief secretaries of states and union territories, Bhalla said the opening of schools has been prohibited under the guidelines on lockdown measures and as a result annual board examinations being conducted by state education boards, CBSE, ICSE for classes 10 and 12 were suspended.
Requests have been received from the state governments and CBSE for conducting the Board examinations and the matter has been examined in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Bhalla said.
Bhalla said requests were received from the state governments and CBSE for conducting board examinations and the matter has been examined in the home ministry.
"Taking into consideration the academic interest of a large number of students, it has been decided to grant exemption from the lockdown measures to conduct board examinations for classes 10 and 12," he said.
However, the exemption to conduct board examinations will be subject to certain conditions.
No examination centre will be permitted in containment zones and face masks will be worn by teachers, staff and students mandatorily, the MHA said.
Besides, there shall be provision of thermal screening and sanitiser at exam centres and social distancing norms have to be followed.
In view of the examination to be conducted by different Boards, their examination schedules should be staggered, the home secretary said.
Special buses may be arranged by the States and UTs for transportation of the students to the examination centres, he added.
All schools were closed and exams were suspended on March 15 even before the lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 for 21 days in a bid to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The lockdown was then extended till May 3 and again till May 17. The lockdown was further extended till May 31 with relaxed guidelines.
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