Gandhinagar,  The Gujarat government on Thursday announced that the Board examinations for Class 10, slated this month, have been cancelled in view of the prevailing coronavirus situation and all regular students will be promoted to Class 11.

The state Education Department will review the situation at a later time and decide on the fate of the repeat students.

Informing the media of the decision taken in the core committee meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said: "The Board examinations for Class 10, which had been scheduled from May 10 to 25, have been cancelled considering the prevailing crisis of the corona outbreak. All the regular students who were to appear for the exams in 1,276 government schools, 5,325 grant-in-aid schools, 4,331 self-financed schools and 45 other schools will now be mass promoted to Class 11.

"We have taken this decision, despite the number of corona cases coming down and rising number of recovery cases in the past two weeks, looking at the prevailing situation in the country and the safety of the students."

The minister also said: "The government will once again review the situation after a considerable reduction in infection, regard the repeat students and then come out with a schedule. The students appearing for these examinations will be provided an adequate time of at least 15 days prior to the exam schedule."

In an earlier decision, the Education Department had announced mass promotion for students of Classes 1 to 9 as well as those of Class 11 to the next class.