April 21, 2021: The Maharashtra Board and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) today announced cancellation of class 10 board exams due to the spike in Covid-19 cases.

The CISCE had planned to rescheduled the examinations for a later date, if the students agreed to it. Those who didn’t choose to appear for the exams would have been assessed according to a ‘fair and unbiased’ criterion, the board had said on Friday. The decision now stands withdrawn.

Yesterday (April 20), in Odisha, a large number of students protested in front of CM Naveen Patnaik’s residence, demanding the cancellation of examinations. Consequently, the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) today cancelled the class 10 examinations in view of the ongoing second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

Meanwhile, states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, Assam and Nagaland have rallied to go ahead with the board examinations.

The National Testing Agency concluded to schedule the JEE Main exam to be held on April 27. Similarly, many other entrance tests like CUSAT have been postponed.