WB govt cancels Kolkata auditorium booking for Bhagwat programme

New Delhi, Jun 16: The class 10 and 12 students of the CICSE board can choose not to appear for pending board exams and be marked as per their performance in pre-board exams or internal assessment, according to top officials.

The board had also submitted the proposal before the Bombay High Court on Monday in response to a petition filed by a parent seeking directions to the authorities to cancel exams in view of the spike in COVID-19 cases.

According to Gerry Arathoon, Chief Executive and Secretary, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), the students will have to communicate their option to their respective schools by June 22.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

The exams which were postponed due to the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus, are now scheduled to be conducted from July 1 to 14. However, several parents have been demanding the exams be scrapped.

"The students will be given two options---they either appear for the rescheduled exams or choose to have their results based on their performance in the pre-board exams or internal assessment. The option will be available only for the pending exams, the result of the subjects for which exams were already conducted, will be calculated as per performance in the exam only," Arathoon said.

The board also clarified that the students will not be entitled to make a subject-wise choice between the two options for pending exams.

Unlike the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which will only be conducting exams in 29 subjects crucial for promotion and admission to higher educational institutions, the CISCE will be conducting all pending exams.

The pending CBSE exams are scheduled from July 1 to 15. The schedule for the board exams has been decided in order to ensure that they are completed before competitive examinations. While the engineering entrance exam JEE-Mains is scheduled to be held from July 18 to 23, the medical entrance exam NEET is scheduled for July 26.

While the CBSE has given the option to not appear for pending board exams for differently-abled students, it has canceled the examinations for its around 250 schools situated abroad and has adopted the criteria of awarding marks on the basis of either practical exams conducted or the internal assessment marks.

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on June 16

A group of parents has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the CBSE to declare results on the basis of tests already conducted, and calculate the total on an average basis with internal assessment marks of the remaining subjects.

Universities and schools across the country have been shut since March 16, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shut down as part of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. A nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day.

While the government has eased several restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.

According to Home Ministry guidelines, there will be no exam centres in containment zones.

"Wearing of face masks by teachers, staff and students will be mandatory. There shall be provisions of thermal screening and sanitiser at the centres and social distancing rules will have to be followed at exam centres. Special buses may be arranged by states and UTs for transportation of students to exam centres," the Home Ministry has said.

Malappuram (Kerala), Feb 19:  children of a couple in a span of nine years has raised suspicion among police personnel here who have registered a case following a complaint after a three-month-old child of the family died on Tuesday and was buried.

Police exhumed the body, which was buried in the morning, and took it to the district hospital at Tirur for post-mortem.

The infant was the sixth child of the couple, police said.

"A case has been registered (for unnatural death) in the matter to verify the death beyond any suspicion raised by locals since five other children of the couple had died in the past nine years," a senior police official said.

The couple had three boys and three girls of which the third girl child lived till the age of four and the rest died before turning one.

"The post-mortem will take place today itself.We are collecting the medical records of the children who had passed away earlier.

We will identify the cause of death after analysing the records and discuss the matter with forensic doctors," Tirur Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) said.

However, relatives claimed that there was nothing suspicious in the death of the children and that doctors have said it was due to some genetic disease.

"The post-mortem of the third child was conducted and the doctors said the death was due to some genetic problems. They said they were helpless," a relative said, adding that the family was ready to face any probe.

According to the locals, the couple had claimed that the children have died due to epilepsy.

Sources said the baby was taken to a hospital but was dead prior to reaching the hospital early this morning.

Bengaluru, Apr 8: A 65-year-old man from Kalaburagi district became the fifth COVID-19 fatality in Karnataka, where six new positive cases were confirmed, pushing the tally in the state to 181, the health department said on Wednesday.

The man with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), died at a designated hospital in Kalaburagi on Tuesday, a day after being shifted from a private hospital where he was initially treated for two days.

"On April 4, he had got admitted to a private hospital, on April 6 he was shifted to ESI hospital, where he passed away," Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar told reporters here.

The private hospital had been locked and its entire medical team quarantined, he said, adding a notice had been served on it for act of "criminal negligence" (by not referring the patient to designated hospital) and will be followed with a police case.

"He was suffering from SARI, on collecting his sample, tests have revealed that he was positive....investigation is on to find how he got infected," the Minister said.

Noting that the hospital in this case did not refer the patient to the designated hospital and kept treating him for two days, he appealed to all private healthcare facilities to inform authorities if anyone showed any indications for COVID-19.

"As of 5 PM on April 8, cumulatively 181 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, it includes 5 deaths and 28 discharges," the health department said in a bulletin.

Out of the positive cases, 71 are those who had come back from foreign countries, while remaining 110 are contacts and those who had gone to Delhi, the Minister said.

Kumar also said an expert committee comprising Narayana Health founder-chairman Dr Devi Prasad Shetty and Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences director Dr C N Manjunath among others, constitutedto devise an exit strategy for the lockdown, has submitted its reports with various recommendations to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.

The chief minister and officials were examining it which was likely to come up before the cabinet meeting on Thursday after which the details will be shared, he added.

The health department said the six fresh cases reported on Wednesday included the elderly man from Kalaburagi who died.

Among the positive cases are a woman from Uttara Kannada with history of SARI and contact of a Dubai returnee, a 72- year-old woman from Kalaburagi, who is mother of a patient that tested positive for the disease; a man from Mandya with contact to two patients.

Others include a man from Chikkaballapura with travel history to Delhi and a woman from Bengaluru also with a travel history to the national capital.

Contact tracing is in progress for all the cases, the bulletin added.

The department said out of 148 active cases in the state, 146 COVID-19 positive patients (including 1 pregnant woman) are in isolation at designated hospitals are stable and two in ICU (one each on oxygen and ventilators).

It said out of total 181 cases in the state, six are transit passengers of Kerala.

Bengaluru accounted for the highest in the state with 63 cases, followed by Mysuru (35), Dakshina Kannada (12) Bidar (ten), Uttara Kannada and Kalaburagi (9 each), Chikkaballapur (8) Belagavi (7), Ballari (6), Bagalkote (5), Mandya (4) Davangere, Bengaluru Rural and Udupi (three each), and Kodagu, Tumakuru, Gadag and Dharwad one each.

Those discharged include 16 from Bengaluru, four from Dakshina Kannada, two each from Uttara Kannada, Kalaburagi and Davangere, and one from Bengaluru Rural; while among those dead are two from Kalaburgari and one each are reported from Bengaluru, Bagalkote and Tumakuru.