SC to hold AP Gov accountable for any casualties during class 12 exams

After the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to hold an offline examination for Class 12 students, the Supreme Court has been given a day’s notice warning the AP government saying “If there is even one fatality, we will hold the state responsible.” The decision by the government on class 12 exams in AP is to be announced by Wednesday and the court will take up the issue by Thursday. 

According to the judges, Andhra Pradesh state cannot keep everything uncertain. The decision on conducting offline examinations might keep thousands of students at risk during this pandemic. It may be recalled that, in view of the pandemic, the majority of the states have cancelled their examinations this year. However, only a few states including Andhra Pradesh have been keen to conduct board exams. The AP government has proposed to conduct examinations in August. 

It is learnt that Advocate Mahfooz Nazki representing Andhra Pradesh, had told the court that the state government has made a decision to conduct the examinations witnessing the drop in Covid cases in AP. It was on June 17, the Supreme Court had issued notice to states that were yet to cancel their board exams. Out of 28 states, six states have already conducted the board exams, 18 states have cancelled them, but four states including Andhra Pradesh have not cancelled. Meanwhile, the Education Minister in an earlier hearing said that they want to conduct the examinations only in the interest of the students future.

On average 15 lakh students register for class 10 and 12 exams for AP Board every year. In 2020, around 10 lakh students will appear for exams in Andhra Pradesh. This year, a similar number of students are expected to enroll in the examinations. Last month, the AP State Government had called off the SSC exams and postpone them till a later date.