Regarding the conduction of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) exams for classes 10 and 12, the government remains undecided but has revealed that the exams would be held offline, after February 2021 and the dates would be announced soon. The Union Education Minister stated that cancelling exams and promoting students without exams will result in putting a stamp on these students and these students might face trouble in getting jobs and admissions at higher education level in the future.

In a virtual interaction with teachers and other stakeholders on Tuesday, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal added that, the exams which are usually held in March-April - would not be postponed in view of the coronavirus pandemic, but the syllabus has been significantly reduced.  He also confirmed that there would be no practical examinations in January and February, saying it was not possible to conduct examinations in the months of January and February 2021. As for dates in March, he confirmed that the situation is being assessed and dates would be announced soon.

"I received a lot of requests from students and teachers to postpone CBSE board exams for Class 10^th and 12^th. Keeping the COVID-19 pandemic in mind, we have decided that board exams will not be held in February. Dates would be announced soon," Mr Pokhriyal tweeted.

Unlike classes, the board exams would not be held online since many schools are in rural areas. The government has been consulting students over the issue of conducting board exams and said majority were in its favour.

"The CBSE board exams will be conducted on a reduced syllabus. Thirty per cent of the total syllabus has been scrapped. While some states have declared as much, others are likely to make an announcement soon. There will also be 33 per cent internal choice in the board exam," the minister said.

"We cannot allow COVID-19 to impact students and have them labelled as COVID-era students who passed without clearing any exams. We have organised JEE, NEET this year. They were among the biggest exams conducted amid the pandemic," Mr Pokhriyal said in response to a teacher's query.

Despite widespread floods, partial Covid-induced lockdowns and soaring infections, lakhs of students wrote the engineering and medical college entrance exams - JEE and NEET - in September this year after the Supreme Court dismissed a bunch of petitions saying "life has to go on".

"Our government is in favour of students," Mr Pokhriyal affirmed students on Tuesday.