HS schedule revised, no exam from April 6-15

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced the revised schedule of the Higher Secondary examination in the state after being compelled to make the changes as the dates of bypolls in Asansol Lok Sabha seat and Ballygunge Assembly constituency could not be deferred from April 12.

Earlier, the class XII board examinations were scheduled to be held between April 2 and 26. In the revised schedule, the examination will be held from April 2 till April 27 with dates of several examinations being altered. "It would have been better if the Commission would have conducted the bypolls when the Assembly elections in five states were held. They should have checked the examination schedule before announcing the dates. The Commission does not give much importance to these area-specific polls," Banerjee said.

She alleged that the Commission has scheduled an election date at the behest of the BJP who are least concerned that change in examination routine causes inconvenience to the students.

As per the revised schedule, the Higher Secondary examination will start with First Language on April 2 followed by Second Language on April 4.

Examinations of the vocational subjects will be held on April 5. Following this, there will be a gap of some days with no examination from April 6 to 15 with the bypolls scheduled on April 12.

The Mathematics, History, Psychology papers will be held on April 16. Economics will be held on April 18 and Computer Science, Environmental Studies and some other subjects on April 19.

The Commercial Law, Philosophy, Sociology has been scheduled for April 20 while Physics, Education, Accountancy etc will take place on April 22. Statistics, Geography, Costing and Taxation have been scheduled for April 23 with Chemistry, Journalism, Sanskrit on April 26 and Biological Science, Business Studies, Political Science on April 27.

The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination will be held on April 30 instead of April 23, announced Banerjee. "The schools serve as election venues. Moreover, the Central Force who will be deployed during the by-elections will also stay in the schools. Our Chief Secretary wrote to the Election Commission to postpone the election dates. But they turned it down. So we were left with no alternative but to reschedule the dates," Banerjee said.

Only a few days back, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) had revised the dates for a few papers to avoid a clash with JEE (Main) examinations. The Council has already uploaded the revised schedule on its website.