More than 2,300 parents initiated a twitter campaign against CISCE decision to conduct board exams in July

Now when there are nearly 3 lakh confirmed cases of COVID 19 in India and counting, a large number of parents of those students (Class X, XII) who are to appear for the Indian School Certification Examination (CISCE) in the first fortnight of July for the pending papers, are  worried about safety of their children and are therefore demanding promotion of class X students without holding these exams.

United by a shared concern for their kids, 4 mothers got together and decided to do something about it to get their voices heard. In less than a day, around 2300 parents came together across the country to tweet about their anguish. Fired by positivity to do something, they managed to tweet 30,000 tweets in a tweet storm today morning, June 12, which happened from 9:00 am to 10:30 am. The hashtags #studentslivesmatter and #Cancel10thICSEboards trended between number 18 and 22 for almost an hour.

Parents are befuddled by this stand of the board and raised a series of concerns in the parent community. The worrisome thoughts in parents mind include the following –

1. Who will ensure the safety of our children?
2. One asymptomatic child or invigilator can infect all the kids in that classroom. The viral load of being in the same room for 4 hours is very high.
3. How do kids who use public transport travel?
4. What happens if a kid gets the infection before the exams?
5. What if the exam centre or the child’s home falls in a containment zone?
6. Specifically, for 10th grade, why is it so essential to have this exam, a few years ago CBSE had cancelled 10th boards.
7. Other than the logistical nightmare, what if the situation really worsens, the kids prepare again and then at the last minute the exams get cancelled. What will be the psychological impact on our children?
8. We do not have the infrastructure to conduct these examinations safely. Answer scripts, threads, question papers are handled by many people and increase the change of COVID exponentially. Is this worth the risk?
9. Parents recognize that by not giving the exam they are jeopardizing their child’s results but are they willing to risk their child’s life? No way!
10. The underlying stress on the children is way too much; with one foot in grade 10 & one in grade
11. It is not like they are not doing grade 11 studies & are having a jolly good time. NO, they have online classes, projects, holiday homework, college apps and all the usual burdens of an 11th grade student. 11. In this time and age, can we not find a solution which does not affect the psychological and physical well-being of our kids?
12. Israel had to close schools as 234 students and school employees tested positive after schools reopened. Why do we need to take this risk?
13. What is the lesson we are teaching our kids? Is health not before anything else?
14. Are we as parents willing to take the risk of exposing our children to the virus? No. Is the Board willing to take a risk? It appears so