BHUBANESWAR / CUTTACK: The Matriculation examination for the current academic session will begin from February 28 next year and conclude by March 10. In view of the ensuing panchayat elections scheduled in February, 2017, the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) decided to postpone the examination to last week of the month.
The decision was taken at a meeting of School and Mass Education Department here on Wednesday. Students will have to fill up forms online for the examination in November first week.In view of the elections, the BSE decided on the exam schedule after approval from State Government and discussion with State Election Commission (SEC).
BSE president Sushanta Kumar Das said conducting the examination during elections will be difficult as teachers would be engaged in poll duty and most importantly, safety of question paper will be an issue. The SEC had asked the department officials to fix dates of both Matriculation and Plus Two examinations accordingly for convenience of students.
This year, at least 6,12,000 will appear the examination, Das said and added that the test for Madhyama (Sanskrit Toll) candidates will also be held during the same period.There will be same question pattern for regular and ex-regular students this year and the examination will be conducted simultaneously on the same sitting.
Last year, the BSE had conducted Matriculation examination from February 22 to March 4 at 2,822 examination centres.
The BSE has also decided to start evaluation process soon after the examinations and results will be declared in April. Similarly, Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) will conduct the annual Plus Two examination from March first week. While the CHSE is yet to decide on the dates for the tests, it has decided to conclude the process by March-end and the results of Science will be declared first in May.
CHSE Chairman Basudev Chatoi said postponing Plus Two examination will affect students as there are several National-level examinations lined up in June and therefore, the results need to be published within a stipulated period.Among others, School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra and Secretary Ranjana Chopra were present.