India’s Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided not to hold any more examinations for Class 10 and Class 12 students of affiliated schools located outside India.

The move comes in view of the global spread of Covid-19, the board said in a press statement on Wednesday.

All Indian schools in Qatar are affiliated to the CBSE.

“There are several CBSE schools located in 25 countries. Each of these countries is also under lockdown and/or have decided to close down the schools for various and differential lengths of time. Under such circumstances, it is felt that the board will not be in a position to hold differential set of exams for each of these countries. Also, in the present situation, it will be difficult to bring the answer books to India for evaluation purposes,” the statement read.

“Therefore, the board has decided to not hold any more exams for the students of Class 10 and 12 schools located outside India. The system of marking/assessment for the purpose of declaring results will be worked out by the Board shortly and informed to these schools,” it added.

For classes 1 to 8, the board said all students in these classes may be promoted to the next class/grade.

Further, the board said it has come to their notice that though several schools have completed their examination, evaluation and promotion process for students who were studying in grades 9 and 11 in the 2019-20 academic session, there are several schools that have not been able to do so. These include, among others, schools located abroad.

“All such schools are advised to promote students of grades 9 and 11 to the next grades on the basis of all the school-based assessments, including project work, periodic tests, term exams, etc, conducted so far. For any child who is unable to clear this internal process, (in any number of subjects), the school may utilise this period for providing remedial interventions, and school may give the opportunity of appearing in school-based test/s, online or offline. The promotion of such children may be decided on the basis of such tests,” the statement explained.

Earlier, as a precautionary measure and in compliance with instructions received from the relevant authorities in the Indian government, the CBSE had postponed all board examinations that were to be held between March 19 and 31.