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Pursuant to Supreme Court's critical remarks earlier during the day, Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to cancel the State Board exams which the State had proposed to conduct in the end of July, 2021. 

The statement comes after a press meeting convened today evening wherein the State Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh informed about cancellation of State Board Exams. 

The Minister also said that the marking would be according to the internal assessment as prescribed by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court today said that it would not permit the State of Andhra’s Pradesh to conduct the State Board Exams until and unless the State places on affidavit a concrete plan ensuring the safety of the students and other staff involved in the examination process.

The vacation bench comprising Justices AM Kahnwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari has directed the state government to place a timeline for declaration of results and a contingency plan with some sort of compensation in case of fatality and posted the matter for further hearing tomorrow.

The Court had also directed all the state boards to formulate the scheme of assessment within 10 days from today in response to which the minister said, "In the interest of students, the second option is exercised to cancel the exam".

Adv Mahfooz Nazki appearing for the state of Andhra Pradesh submitted that the state was going to conduct the exams at the end of July and they are not going to cancel the exams.

The Court however not convinced with the state’s decision said “How Have you worked out on the formula to follow the protocol? How are you going to arrange for the requisite rooms? How are you going to divide the students in 34634 rooms? On what basis have you said, not more than 15 students per room?  If you don't have the arrangement, are you going to conduct it in open?”  

“How can we permit you to put the life of students at risk?  If we agree, you will have to put before us a proper firm decision..The condition of Covid is different in different states. Now Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh & Kerala have been identified for the delta variant. We're faced with the situation where we'll have to see the situation & ground reality”

The bench further clarified that until and unless the state ensures that the exam would be conducted without any fatality, it would not permit the state to conduct the board exams.

State of Andhra Pradesh yesterday submitted an affidavit stating that it will conduct State Board Examinations. This development comes in after yesterday’s hearing wherein the Supreme Court came heavily upon the State Government to take a conclusive decision saying, “Do not keep the students under any uncertainty. Mr Nazki, file an affidavit saying that you are going to conduct the exam.”

Following precautionary measures shall be put in place, as per the affidavit submitted:

1. Exams for class XI and XII will be conducted on alternative days
2. First year or Second year students are required to appear for 5 or 6 subjects only; 5 subjects for Arts and 6 subjects for Science
3. Only 15 to 18 students will be allotted to each examination centre
4. A Social distancing of minimum 5 ft. between each student shall be maintained
5. All examination centres will be sanitized daily
6. Masks, Sanitizers, Thermal Scanners will be kept available in every examination centre
7. Students and teachers shall be subjected to a Thermal Screening before entering the examination centre
8. Room wise allotment of students shall be displayed at multiple places to avoid crowding at the examination centre

The Supreme Court had however posted for tomorrow at 2:00 PM.