Panaji, May 18 (IANS): The opposition in Goa urged Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, here on Monday, to emulate the model adopted by Punjab, Chhattisgarh and UP to allot scores to Class X students, based on previous academic year's performance, instead of forcing them to appear in examinations amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Addressing the media, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat said Sawant should appoint experts to deal with the Class X board examinations and not force students to take them.

Goa has seen a surge of Covid-19 cases over the last few days. The state didn't have single Covid-19 case between April 3 and May 13. But since May 14, the state has recorded 36 cases.

Over 20,000 students are scheduled to appear in the SSC examinations and several thousand more in the HSSC examinations (part of which was completed before March 25 when the lockdown was announced).

"It seems we are ignoring the risk to 11,000 students and their parents. If anything happens tomorrow, who will be responsible," Kamat said.

When the central guidelines said schools, colleges and other education institutions should remain closed, how could a state government conduct board examinations, he said.