Bhubaneswar: While further extension of the lockdown in Odisha is almost certain with the Chief Minister giving the nod in its favour after a video conferencing with the Prime Minister on Monday, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash on Tuesday said that a decision on whether to cancel the remaining examinations of the Plus II streams will be taken within a week.
Briefing the media here, the minister said his department has been receiving proposals from various quarters to cancel the remaining examinations in view of the prevailing situation in the state.
“The department is sincerely reviewing the proposals and it will take a final call in a meeting within a week in the larger interest of the students,” he added.
Government quarantine centres in 72 Plus II examination centres!
Talking to the media on condition of anonymity, a senior official of the department said 72 examination centres have been converted into government quarantine centres. Migrant Odia worker and those from other states stranded in Odisha are staying in some of these centres.
“The migrant Odia labourers, who will return to the state once the lockdown restrictions are lifted on May 3, will be kept in these quarantine centres for 14 days. Therefore, it won’t be possible to conduct the remaining Plus II examinations at these centres,” he said.
The official further said that the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) usually uses the infrastructure of private colleges and IT centres for evaluation of the answer sheets during the vacation in April and May. But considering the prevailing situation, it is doubtful whether these private institutions will allow the evaluation.
Reliable sources in the department said that in case the remaining examinations are not conducted, evaluation of the papers, which were held before the lockdown, will begin from the third week of May.
Examinations in more than 10 subjects suspended
Notably, the department had suspended the remaining Plus II examinations on March 21 due to the lockdown announced by the state government to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
As a result, the examinations for two Science subjects Zoology and Statistics, three Commerce subjects Rural Development, Business Economics and Insurance, five Arts subjects Economics, Logic, Geography, Sociology and Anthropology and some subjects in Vocational studies could not be held.
