Amid the Coronavirus outbreak, the Tamil Nadu government has issued the directive to postpone the board exams for the tenth-grade students that have been scheduled this month. The order of the postponement from the Chief Minister has come exactly a week before the scheduled date of exams. 

As per the notification issued earlier, the tenth-grade students would appear for the board exams from March 27th to April 1st and while the state has been facing severe lockdown with the view of containing the spread of the Coronavirus, it was largely anticipated that the tenth board exams would be deferred due to the epidemic. 

The school education department has been approached with multiple petitions to postpone the exams as the department has already ordered to shut down both public and private schools and suspend all the classes till March 31st, 2020 to avoid the risk of the spread. As the state has been under lockdown, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has, on Saturday, announced that the board exams for tenth-grade students would be postponed and the exams would rather be conducted after April 14th, 2020. 

The Chief Minister stated that the fresh notification concerning the board exams would be released soon. However, according to the reports, the board exams for eleventh and twelfth-grade students would go as scheduled without any changes. The announcement is a part of the task force to combat the virus. The state has been going through an unprecedented lockdown and the current status quo will remain in place till March 31st, 2020. Following the order from the Tamil Nadu government, the Puducherry government has also issued directives to postpone the board exams for the tenth-grade students.

The state of Tamil Nadu has reported with three positive cases for the Coronavirus so far with one being recovered while the other two have been quarantined and getting treated in Chennai. The state government of Tamil Nadu has been tightening the mechanisms to contain the spread and the schools, colleges, malls, theaters, bars, parks, tourist spots, and private establishments have been closed and would remain closed till March 31st, 2020. As on Saturday noon, India has reported with 271 positive cases in its territory and the virus has claimed four lives so far.

Also read: Corona outbreak: TN Gov suspends bus and metro rail services to combat the spread!