West Bengal to reschedule Madhyamik and Higher Secondary exams
School education minister Dipak Barman said the board exams will be deferred due to the ongoing population census.
West Bengal will reschedule the Madhyamik and Higher Secondary (HS) examinations next year because of the population census, according to a report by Telegraph India on Wednesday.
School Education Minister Dipak Barman stated that the exams would be deferred as the census is scheduled to continue until February 28. He said the revised schedule for the exams would be announced next week.
The state secondary education board had earlier set the Madhyamik exams to run from February 15 to March 2. The HS Council had planned to hold its exams after the Madhyamik examinations concluded.
A department official said the secondary education board proposed shifting the exams from March 2 to March 16 because of the difficulty in engaging teachers for exam duties during the census. The HS Council also proposed holding its exams after the Madhyamik exams.
The census is being conducted in two phases, with the second phase involving population and caste enumeration scheduled from January 25 to February 28 in Bengal. A source said the exam-conducting bodies decided to defer the exams because the available teachers, many of whom will be on census duty, cannot also be assigned to invigilation.
Education department sources noted that schools are already facing a teacher shortage as no recruitment has occurred since 2016. A School Service Commission official said the recruitment process will start after a revised merit list is published based on a 7 per cent OBC reservation.