GUWAHATI: The Assam Cabinet held the fifth cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and said that the COVID-19 situation has not been improved in the state to conduct the board exams.
Further in the meeting, the cabinet announced that the final decision regarding HSLC, High Madrassa, and HS final year examinations will be taken on June 18 in a meeting between Education Department and various other stakeholders.
The other key decisions taken in the meeting are:
1) Cabinet decided to set up 4 new Forensic Laboratories at Assam Medical College and Hospital at Dibrugarh, Silchar Medical College and Hospital, Tezpur Medical College and Hospital, and Bongaigaon Civil Hospital.
2) A decision was taken to empower Social Welfare Department to procure rice directly from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) under ICDS to reduce costs. Also, ceiling (FoC) will not be required from now onwards in the implementation of SNP.
3) It has decided to approve the statutes of Madhabdev University at Narayanpur, Bhattadev University at Bajali, Pathsala, Birangana Sati Sadhani State University at Golaghat, and Rabindranath Tagore University at Hojai for facilitating smooth functioning.
4.) It further decided not to allow home isolation to any Covid19 patient who does not have a separate accommodation facility at home.
Earlier, the Assam State Education Minister said that students will be informed about the date sheet at least 15 days prior to the examination and will be held in offline mode, however, the examination format may change this year.
On the other hand, amid the pandemic and confusion among the students deciding their fate, a plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Assam government and state examination boards for cancellation of Class X and XII exams.
The petitioners had written to the apex court that all state boards must follow the decision of CBSE and evaluate Class XII students with an alternative method. The petition also highlighted that there are more than 1.5 crore Class XII students across the nation including State Boards and conducting offline examinations of millions of students without vaccination could become "the reason of the third wave of Covid 19".
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