Maharashtra Board: MSBSHSE Cancels SSC Exams, Results Based on Assessment

Considering the COVID-19 situation in the state and across the country, the Maharashtra Board has decided to cancel the class 10 Board exams. Earlier, the Maharashtra State Board Of Secondary And Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) had postponed the exams to be held in June. The earlier decision now stands canceled. While announcing the cancelation of Board Exams, State School Education Minister, Varsha Gaikwad said, “Health and safety of students & teachers are our topmost priority.”

Apart from selecting a stream of study for classes 11 and 12 MSBSHSE SSC exams are also crucial for admission to FYJC or junior college admissions in Maharashtra. There is no information on how will these admissions be held. “The criterion on the basis of which results will be declared for class 10th and date of result declaration will soon be announced. The School Education Dept is committed to devising a “fair and accurate” assessment criterion,” informed Gaikwad.

While the theory exams have been canceled now. The MSBSHSE had earlier announced to cancel the practical exams for Maharashtra SSC students. Instead of practicals, the students were asked to submit assignments in their respective schools. On average, around 15 lakh students take the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) or classes 10 exams held by Maharashtra Board who will be affected by this decision.

Not just class 10, Maharashtra had decided to promote students in classes 1 to 9 and class 11 students without exams too. Now, only class 12 students from Maharashtra will be appearing for the exams this year. The MSBSHSE HSC Board exams have been postponed and the revised dates are yet to be declared. Regarding class 12 exams, Gaikwad said that the government is “closely monitoring the situation”.

The decision of not holding exams for class 10 students is in line with the decision taken by the Centre government. Earlier this month, Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with senior officials in which it was decided to cancel class 10 board exams for CBSE and postpone class 12 exams. After the decision, Gaikwad had said that Maharashtra Board will study the decision taken by CBSE before taking a final call.

MSBSHSE had written a letter to CBSE, CISCE, and other educational boards to have a uniform policy. Earlier this month, Shiv Sena leader Arvind Sawant had written a letter to Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhiryal Nishank seeking a uniform policy for class 10 and 12 Board exams across states and boards. “A unilateral decision by any state would lead to the students of that particular state being at a disadvantage career and opportunity wise,” the former union minister wrote in his letter.

“As the current atmosphere is not conducive to exams, we had earlier postponed our exams while requesting other boards to reschedule theirs. In response to our communication, other boards have now canceled their exams, so maintaining parity, we have canceled ours too,” said Gaikwad while canceling the Maharashtra Board SSC exams.

After CBSE, today CISCE has also canceled its Class 10 exams. Earlier, the central board had given an option to students to select their assessment mode. They had an option to appear for a written exam or be promoted based on internal assessment. Now, the option is not available and all of the students will be assessed based on “special criterion”, which is yet to be disclosed.

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