"Glad the government has finally cancelled the 10th standard exams, however a final decision MUST be taken for the 12th grade too. Keeping students under undue pressure until June makes no sense. It's unfair. I urge the government to decide now."

 

Earlier in the day the Congress General Secretary had demanded the cancellation of the CBSE exams due to Covid resurgence.

 

"My appeal to the government again is to cancel the CBSE exams," Priyanka wrote in Hindi on Facebook.

 

The demand came ahead of the Prime Minister's meeting with the education ministers of the states.

 

Earlier on April 11, she wrote a letter to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, in which she said, "It will be practically impossible to ensure the safety of students at large and at crowded exam centres. Additionally, given the nature and the spread of the virus, it is not just the students who will be at risk, but also their teachers, invigilators and family members who are in contact with them. Aside from this, by forcing the children to sit for these exams during a raging pandemic, the Government and the CBSE board will be held responsible in the event that any of the exam centres prove to be hotspots at which large numbers of children become infected with the disease.

 

"The responsibility to protect and guide the young lies with the political leaders. As state after state issues guidelines preventing the assembly of large numbers of people in public places, what moral grounds can we stand on, while forcing young children to do exactly that.

 

"It is not just the physical health of these children, but also their psychological well-being that can be deeply impacted. They already face the immense pressure of the exams; in addition, they will now be fearing the conditions in which they will be taking them," she wrote in the letter.

 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had also asked the Centre to reconsider its decision of holding the exams.