PANJIM: The Goa government on Wednesday announced cancellation of the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) examination conducted by the Goa Board.
The decision comes a day after the Centre allowed nationwide cancellation of the Class XII exams conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) due to the COVID surge.
Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant announced the decision on twitter putting an end to the anxiety of the students.
“After extensive consultations, it has been decided that the Class XII exams shall be cancelled, as the health and safety of our students is of utmost priority,” Sawant tweeted. “This will also help put an end to the anxiety amongst the students, parents and teachers,” he added.
The Chief Minister said that the results will be declared as per well-defined objective criteria.
Nearly 19,027 students had registered for the Class XII board exams 2021, which were to be held from April 24. However, due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, the examination had been postponed.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister had chaired a meeting to decide on the conduct of Class XII board exams
The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, the Directors of Education, Higher Education and technical education.
Emerging from the meeting, Sawant had said that the government was exploring three options, including conducting the exams full-fledged.
Cancellation of the examination in full or allowing those who want to opt for appearing for exams the opportunity to do so, while declaring results based on internal marks for those who do not want to answer the exams, were the other two options that the government had been considering.
The State government has already cancelled the Class X examination and students will be promoted to Class XI based on internal assessment marks.
