The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is a national level board of education in India for public and private schools, controlled and managed by Government of India. According to Wikipedia, there are over twenty-thousand schools in India and two-hundred schools in several countries outside India affiliated to the CBSE. The Class-12, or the senior secondary school leaving examination conducted by CBSE, and various states are the most important event in the life of students. It is the qualification for university education in the country, marks scored in this exam determine the college you get an admission to. There are 1.2 million students across India who are registered to sit for the CBSE exams this year (2021) and nearly 9 million at the state level boards. [While the Class-12 exams are a requirement for all colleges, admission for professional courses like medicine are through separate national-level entrance tests]

Due to the pandemic, the exams which normally happen in February and March every calendar year got postponed to May & June 2021.  Because of the devastating second-wave in the country, the exams were later indefinitely postponed. For the last few weeks, Government of India has been holding consultations with the stakeholders on how to proceed on this. Today, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi announced the cancellation of exams. Instead of physical exams, the board will “compile the results of class XII students as per a well-defined objective criteria in a time-bound manner” (sic).

As a parent of a #CBSEclass12 student I am relieved & happy with the decision for the cancellation of exams. This was the only option and is the best, considering the risk to life & the tremendous mental pressure the kids were already facing. It was not only the welfare of the students, having physical exams now would’ve exposed millions of their parents and teachers as well.

Microsoft PowerPoint "Integral' theme

Microsoft PowerPoint “Integral’ theme

If you are interested, there is a titbit (tidbit in American English) about the picture on top of this post featuring the PM and shared by DDNewsLive.  In that, you can see the PM holding a document. Being a PPT virtuoso my eyes immediately recognized the software that should’ve been used to create it. It is Microsoft #PowerPoint and the theme was an out of box one called “Integral”.

 

[Update 2nd June 2021, 11 PM]

The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India replied to my tweet!

As I was about to close my PC for the day and go to bed, I checked Twitter and was floored to see hundreds of notifications – it was getting flooded with likes, replies and retweets. I saw replies from many saying my tweet that I posted yesterday (1st June 2021) about the CBSE 12th STD exam cancellation has been replied to by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India from his handle @narendramodi. I was puzzled, as there was nothing in my timeline about this; going to PM’s timeline I saw his reply. I feel humbled and honoured. Thanks for all the wishes.

NDTV, the English News TV Channel had quoted my name in their online article about Prime Minister’s tweet.

NDTV: Chennai-based Venkatarangan Thirumalai -- a software professional, his profile says -- expressed relief and happiness.

NDTV: Chennai-based Venkatarangan Thirumalai — a software professional, his profile says — expressed relief and happiness.

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