Telangana Cancels Class 10 Board Exams, Will Use Internal Assessment

In a significant development impacting over half a million students, the Telangana government has announced the automatic promotion of all Class 10 students for the current academic year without conducting the remaining board examinations. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao confirmed the decision today, citing the formidable challenges posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in organizing such a large-scale logistical exercise.

The Chief Minister elaborated that students of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) would be assessed based on their performance in internal assessments. These internal evaluations will form the basis for awarding grades, allowing students to advance to the next academic level without further delay. This move comes as a collective sigh of relief for 5,34,903 Class 10 students across the state, whose academic future had been shrouded in uncertainty.

The decision was finalized during a crucial high-level review meeting convened specifically to address the predicament surrounding the pending SSC examinations. The meeting, attended by senior ministers and top officials, meticulously examined various strategies, including those adopted by other states, before arriving at this conclusion. The primary driver behind the cancellation is the state's unwavering focus on combating the spread of the novel coronavirus, which necessitates avoiding large public gatherings inherent in conducting state-wide examinations.

The path to this decision has been fraught with complexities. The Telangana SSC exams originally commenced on March 19, encompassing six subjects and a total of eleven papers. However, only three examinations could be successfully conducted before the nationwide lockdown was enforced in March, leading to the indefinite postponement of the remaining papers.

Subsequently, the state government had attempted to reschedule the deferred examinations, announcing new dates from June 8 to July 5. This attempt followed a conditional green light from the Telangana High Court, which permitted the conduct of SSC exams everywhere except within the high-risk zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Ranga Reddy districts, which were experiencing a particularly high incidence of COVID-19 cases. Despite these efforts, the evolving public health crisis and the impracticality of safely conducting examinations for such a vast student body have ultimately led to the current resolution.

Chief Minister Rao also indicated that a definitive decision regarding examinations for graduate and post-graduate courses would be made at a later stage, contingent upon a thorough assessment of the prevailing situation. This pragmatic approach underscores the government's commitment to prioritizing public health while ensuring academic continuity.

It is noteworthy that this decision aligns with previous measures taken by the state. Earlier in the academic year, the Telangana government had already announced the promotion of students from Classes 1 to 9 without requiring them to sit for final examinations, setting a precedent for this latest announcement concerning Class 10 students. The administration continues to monitor the health crisis closely, promising further updates on the academic calendar as circumstances evolve.