A Student Poll on CBSE 2021 Board Exams shows majority inclination towards deferment, some favour cancellation

Vinod Kakumanu
Dec. 4, 2020, 12:03 p.m.

The board exams are watersheds of sorts for the students and news related to them deservedly command attention, even more so when extraordinary circumstances—a pandemic, no less—disrupts the scheme of things.

So, this year the exams were postponed many times over, schools remain closed and online teaching got into our lexicon. Now, the question is how things will look like next year and the CBSE board exams topic is rife with speculations and opinions.

A poll was conducted by a media group around the issue and it has garnered responses which indicate that the students are, in large part, in favour of postponement till April-May. However, there are, quite a few, who want them to be scraped off for the year.

Out of a total of 295115 mailed in votes, 56% were for postponement till April or May and 27 % votes were for a cancellation. It would be remiss if we don’t mention the ones who voted for the February-March schedule, the usual CBSE calendar. A meager 5.6 % opted for the normal exam dates. It's telling, perhaps, that almost no one took vaccine availability as a condition to decide their vote.

The findings of the poll are consistent with the expert’s opinion on the subject—deferment till May 2021. They have reasoned that the virtual classes, the only alternative, had gaps sufficient enough to reconsider equating their outcomes with physical classes in the Indian context. The postponement, they say, will help offset the loss to some degree by affording some physical classroom teaching.

It is pertinent to mention that there have been several opinion polls and brainstorming sessions across stakeholders, one of the most pertinent ones is indicative of a unanimous position of teachers favouring postponement till May. They have categorically stated that a 3 month class time is needed to compensate for the lockdown lapse.