On Monday, the third phase of the countrywide lockdown begand as the extension was increased till May 17,2020. This also means that all the schools and colleges across India will remain shut as well as the pending board exams will stay postponed.
On Friday, the government said that the nationwide coronavirus lockdown will be extended by two more weeks from May 4, looking upon the significant gains from the six-week shutdown in India’s fight to help in the spread of coronavirus.
Extending the lockdown for the second time, the home ministry made an announcement about the new guidelines which are based on the demarcation of the country into red zones with “significant risk of spread of the infection”; green zones with either zero cases or no confirmed cases in the past 21 days; and those in between as orange.
Irrespective of the zone, as per the new guidelines only a limited number of activities will remain prohibited throughout the country.
Based on the risk profiling of the districts of the country into Red (hotspot), Green and Orange Zone, MHA also issued new guidelines to regulate different activities in this period. The districts falling in the Green and Orange Zones the guidelines have limited relaxations.
Exams postponed
A fresh announcement is likely to be made soon from various state boards and universities for the exams which were scheduled immediately after the lockdown,
One of the biggest discussion is around CBSE board exams. Before few days, the Board had made it clear that the exams will not be cancelled. The exams will be conducted when it is ready for so. With the extension of lockdown, the Board will be able to decide on the exams after third week of May.
Council for the India School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), which is responsible for conducting the ISC and ICSE exams, has also stated that it will conduct the remaining papers or subjects and no exam has been cancelled.
On Sunday, the HRD ministry said that on May 5, fresh dates for competitive exams –JEE and NEET. Due to nationwide lockdown, the exams were postponed to contain the COVID-19 spread.