The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday, 24 June, announced the cancellation of class 10 and intermediate (class 11 and 12) board exams in the state.
The Supreme Court had, earlier on Thursday, pulled up the government of Andhra Pradesh over its previous pronouncement to go ahead with physical board exams.
At a press meet, State Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh reportedly said that in view of the SC orders, requiring states to complete exams before 31 July, it has been decided that the Board of Intermediate exams for 2021 will stand cancelled.
Further, Suresh said that following consultation with Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education officials, who informed that conducting exams, evaluation and results declaration would take at least 40 days, apart from having to notify students of the exam schedule 15 days beforehand, it was decided that it is not feasible to conduct exams in such a tight schedule.
The alternative grading method will be announced soon, he further said.
SC’s Rap
The SC had, earlier, pointed out that "other state boards have cancelled the exams taking note of the ground realities."
A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari interrogated the state government's decision to hold Class 12 exams with 15 students in the examination hall in view of the pandemic.
“If there is one fatality, we will hold the state of Andhra Pradesh responsible for it,” Justice Khanwilkar added, also reportedly saying that it may have to order Rs 1 crore as compensation in case of each fatality (due to COVID during exams).
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