In 2025, a Class 10 student from Kolkata was rushing to her board exam centre in an auto along with her mother, when the auto they were travelling in met with an accident and her mother succumbed to her injuries. The minor girl who had just lost her mother was still escorted to the exam centre by the commissionerate.
In another incident, Sunil Kumar, a Class 12 student from Valliyur in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district, was advised to appear for his Class 12 board exams despite losing his mother (the only surviving parent) the morning of the exam. Why? Because family members believed “it’s what she would have wanted”. This was even acknowledged by Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin who wrote, “This is the Tamil community! Education is more important than our lives!”
And in February 2026, a 23-year-old man, Sahil Dhaneshra, was killed after a speeding SUV driven by a minor hit his motorcycle. Even in such a case, the minor was granted interim bail to let the culprit appear for his Class 10 board exams.
From grief and life changing tragedies, to being culprits, these news items reveal a troubling pattern -- India's social and psychological fixation with board examinations. Such cases raise an important question, are we as a society valuing marks and examinations over the emotional well-being, dignity, and safety of youngsters?
Keshav Agarwal, President of Educators Federation Delhi, shared an episode where a Class 10 student, Ananya, who lost her grandfather — someone she was deeply attached to — just two days before her board exam. “She hadn’t slept for two nights. She didn’t want to appear for the paper. But the narrative quickly shifted from mourning to marks — ‘Board exam hai, saal barbaad ho jayega,’ ‘It’s just three hours, finish it and come back.’ Even neighbours reinforced that missing a board exam would permanently damage her future.”
She wrote the exam, but later admitted she barely remembered what she attempted. She passed, but far below her potential. The emotional fatigue lingered for months. “Exams can be reattempted. Emotional scars are harder to heal,” Agarwal says. “Sometimes parents forget that a child is not a machine that can switch off grief and switch on performance.”
Decades ago, board exams were treated as per their original aim, an assessment of what the child had learnt the whole year and whether he/ she had learned enough to be promoted to the next class where they could be taught tougher things. However, in the last decade board marks have evolved from academic milestones into social currency. So much so that PM Modi stressed in one of his annual Pariksha Pe Charcha that 'parents should not treat their kid's marksheets as their own visiting cards'.
“Board results have become symbols of achievement,” Agarwal explains. “The pressure is not just academic, it is social and career-driven.”
Mamta Wadhwa, Director Principal of Manav Rachna International School, Faridabad, adds that while board exams provide structure and benchmarking in a competitive ecosystem, they must not translate into excessive pressure. “The focus has to remain on balanced preparation and humane compassion.”
As per the updated CBSE guidelines, any class 10 student who has not appeared for two subjects in board exams 2026, or fails to clear the exams for two subjects in the February session, will be allowed to re-appear for the May session of the CBSE board exams 2026. However, if a student has missed or failed three or more than three subjects, then the student will have to retry next year.
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
