West Bengal Board Exams: CM Mamata Banerjee announces Madhyamik, HS exam dates; Check here

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, May 27, announced that the Class 12 board exams in Bengal will be held in the last week of July, while the exams for Class 10 will be held in mid-August. She stated that the dates will be disclosed later by the respective boards. She noted that both board examinations will be held at home centres and will only be for mandatory topics. Bengal CM informed the media at the state secretariat, "We have decided to hold the secondary (Madhyamik) and higher secondary (Uccho Madhyamik) examinations... adhering to all COVID-19 safety protocols."

Class 10th board exams in West Bengal

Exams for the state board have been postponed until now. West Bengal is one of the rare states where the class 10 exams have not been cancelled. The majority of state boards, including both the CISCE and CBSE, have discontinued class 10 exams in favour of assessing students based on internal grades. The West Bengal Board president, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, had already stated that the school education department would not be able to hold the class 10th examination from June 1. He had said that the state government should decide whether or not the exam should be cancelled.

Higher Secondary examinations in WB

The announcement of dates comes after the CPI(M) students' wing requested West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu, earlier this week, to ensure that students in Classes 10 and 12 do not fall behind examinees from other boards as a result of the state's decision to postpone secondary and higher secondary exams owing to the COVID-19 situation. 

Srijon Bhattacharya, state unit secretary of the Students Federation of India (SFI), and Pratikur Rahman, state president of the SFI, wrote to Mr Basu, expressing their strong opposition to the plot by the Centre to make online learning obligatory for every student. The group reiterated its objections to the UGC's suggested blended way of education, which proposes that 40% of the curriculum be completed online, stating it should not be implemented in the state.

(with inputs from PTI)

Picture Credit: PTI