West Bengal announces dates for postponed class 12 state board exams

West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee announced on Tuesday the dates of the postponed examinations for the class 12 state boards. The exams, which couldn't be held on the scheduled dates due to the coronavirus-forced lockdown, will be conducted on June 29, July 2 and July 6, Chatterjee told reporters.

The minister said all safety precautions regarding COVID-19, including social distancing norms, will be ensured during the exams. While the higher secondary examinations for most of the subjects were conducted from March 13 to 21, examinations for some papers scheduled on March 23, March 25 and March 27 were postponed.

Examinations for the papers that were postponed are Physics, Nutrition, Education, Accountancy, Chemistry, Economics, Journalism, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, French, Statistics, Geography, Costing and Taxation, Home Management and Family Resource Management. A senior official of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education said they were yet to receive any official communication from the government regarding the exams.

"Once we get the notice, we can tell you," the official said when contacted. Chatterjee said not more than 80-100 candidates will be accommodated in an exam centre. Examinations will be held in 2,500 centres and over two lakh students will write the papers on each of the three days," he said.

The minister said the government was receiving several queries from students regarding the postponed examinations and subject-wise dates will be notified shortly.