Coronavirus Pandemic: IB cancels XI and XII exams

The International Baccalaureate (IB) has announced the cancellation of its diploma programme and career-related programme exams for Classes XI and XII amid the coronavirus pandemic. The exams for the two classes were scheduled to take place from April 30 to May 22. IB is among the first boards to cancel the exams.

In its circular issued to the schools across the world, the IB said, "The students will be awarded either diploma or a course certificate which reflects their standard of work. The achievement will be based around the students' coursework and the established assessment expertise, rigour, and quality control already built into the programmes."

The schools have already received revised internal assessment guidelines to award students a grade by calculating coursework mark and predicted grade as submitted to IB by respective schools.

That being said, the final exams of public universities across the state will reportedly be held only after mid-May.

There was a virtual meeting organised by governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who is also the chancellor of universities on April 8. In this meeting, most vice-chancellors were of the opinion that given the current scheme of things in the state, it would be almost impossible to think of conducting exams before mid-May.

Other than that, amid the national lockdown, the MPSC examinations which were rescheduled for April 26 have been postponed again. The Preliminary and Subordinate Service exams for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission were scheduled to happen on April 26 and May 10 respectively. But amid the lockdown, the exams have been indefinitely postponed.

Earlier, the exams for CBSE schools and junior colleges barring Class X and XII were also cancelled. Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had announced that all the students in classes I to VIII will be promoted to the next class without any examination. Alongside, all the students in class IX and XI will be promoted on the basis of their school-based assessments, projects, and periodic tests held before schools were shut.