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A petition in Supreme Court has sought an alternate mode of assessment of students from Class X, XI, and XII of CBSE ICSE NIOS and State Boards instead of offline exam amid the effect COVID-19 situation on the students of the country.

It has further sought direction to evaluate students as per their internal assessment for this academic year as well while stating, "Crores of students class X and XII under CBSE ICSE NIOS and State Board are left in a perplexed situation due to the postponement of their examination and in absence of any concrete stand taken by the Board.

The petition has been filed by Anubha Shrivastava Sahai a child rights activist and Student Union of Odisha after several students from different boards approached the petitioners raising the said grievance. 

The plea has stated that "In most of the States during the lockdown period of June - December 2020 no classes were provided to Students. Almost 98% of colleges/schools of all the States had not conducted any online class for Students in that period."

Whereas, it is alleged that looking into the matter most of the State Government & Education department has declared for 100 days offline class for students and will conduct exams after100 days offline classes.

However, it is said that "The government said the students have to bring “NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE” signed by parents to join offline classes. But most of the parents were unable to allow their child for offline classes in the pandemic. And it is said that it is not compulsory for all students to join offline classes.

In addition to this, family members of several students were in hospitals during the period, lost their family members, faced other difficulties, all this has impacted the studies of many students and especially of those who could not afford tuition.

"Some states have declared the timetable for the final exam in offline mode in subjective form some have still not declared and in 5 states due to elections they haven’t decided anything," the plea added. 

It is in this regard the petitioners have sought an alternate mode of assessment of students from Class X XI XII of CBSE ICSE NIOS and State Boards instead of offline exam and to conduct an improvement exam for those who are not satisfied with internal assessment and further direction to constitute a committee to decide the formula of assessment of students including compartment students and declare the result within a time limit and deadline.

Case Title: Anubha Shrivastava Sahai and Anr Vs. Union of India & Ors.