Uncertainty Over Admissions Rises After Postponement of Class 12 Boards

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decision to cancel the Class X board exams and postpone the Class XII exams called for varied responses from the students, teachers and parents.

Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union Education Minister, on Wednesday announced that the CBSE board exams for Class X have been cancelled while the exams for Class XII have been postponed till June in the wake of the explosive spike in Covid-19 cases all over the country. On one hand the Class X students are worried about the criteria to be finalised for promotion to the next class, Class XII students, are concerned about their academic future after school. The two-month delay in the Class XII CBSE board exams may witness a cascading impact on higher education, upsetting academic year calendars for students looking to seek admissions in foreign universities and DU.

What experts have to say?

Career and education counsellors across the city said that the postponement of Class XII boards may create some issues for students who have or are wanting to apply abroad, but added that most foreign universities have an “adaptable” and “flexible” criterion that would hopefully accommodate the delay in announcement of XII boards results.

Founder of career counselling agency University Leap, Sakshi Mittal, said, “Foreign universities are being very supportive in terms of extending deadlines for submitting final results. Their admissions are based on a holistic process which includes marks of classes 9-12, activities, essays, so they aren’t dependent on class 12 marks alone. In fact, many Canadian universities are giving unconditional letters already so students can start applying for visa.” She added that the students wanting to get admissions at universities in the UK may encounter some issues since the admission there is offered only after the submission of Class 12 marks. But since the order has recently come out, the stakeholders are hopeful that they might be changed to accommodate the delayed results. “However, most courses are starting in October, so hopefully Board exam results will be out by then. We feel most foreign universities will be flexible with their guidelines. We have written to some universities and they have said they will extend the deadline,” she said.

Delhi University, which is known to admit students to its undergraduate courses purely on the basis of cut-offs determined by the Class XII Board results, had submitted a proposal this year, to the University Grants Commission (UGC) that board marks and CUCET (Central University Common Entrance Test) scores be given equal weightage for the undergraduate admissions.

A DU official said, “In case the Class 12 exams get cancelled, then we will have to come up with some other admission criteria this year. But that’s an extreme situation. We will wait and watch now.”

Senior DU officials admitted “If CUCET is implemented, we are planning to give 50% weightage to Board exams and CUCET. If the Board exams are further postponed and NTA successfully conducts CUCET, we may switch over to our second plan, which is giving 100% weightage to CUCET scores,” an official added.

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