CBSE board exams 2021 postponed: No exams in Jan or Feb, confirms Education Minister

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Tuesday (December 22) interacted with teachers through a live webinar session on the upcoming board examinations.

During the webinar, the education minister said that the class 10 and 12 board exams will not be held in January-February. The schedule of board exams will be decided in February, Pokhriyal said.

Class 10 and 12 board exams will not be held in Jan-Feb

"Cancelling exams and promoting students without an exam will result in putting a stamp on these students. These students might face trouble in getting jobs and admissions at higher education level in future. We do not want that for our students.

Thus, cancellation will not happen. Thus, board exams will be held but postponed. The class 10 and 12 board exams will not be held in Jan-Feb. But when exactly will the exams will be held will be decided after Feb, said Pokhriyal.

"Many countries have cancelled one entire academic year but our teachers continued to work hard and did not allow any candidate to waste their academic year. Teachers are no less than corona warriors for training 33 crore students across countries during this tough time," the Education Minister said.

Not mandatory to follow the earlier timetable

Pokhriyal said a teacher is a key between the drafting of the national education policy (NEP) and its implementation on the ground. He said that implementation of a policy is tough task, but a must one. Pokhriyal said it was not mandatory to follow the earlier timetable and the examination schedule could be postponed. Further announcements on these lines is expected today.

This move by the union minister comes in the wake of pending date announcement and confusion surrounding the exam schedule of CBSE board exams 2021. The minister had sought teachers' suggestions about the conduct of exams.

In his last webinar with students and parents, on December 10, the Education Minister answered questions about medical entrance tests, NEET 2021; engineering entrance test, JEE 2021 and board exams 2021.

Earlier on December 16, Pokhriyal announced that the JEE (Main) exams will now take place four times in a year. The decision was taken after the ministry examined the suggestions received for conducting the exams. The four exam sessions will be held in February, March, April, and May 2021.