Plus II exam to resume from July 1

BHUBANESWAR: Following extension of countrywide lockdown, Odisha Government has deferred the Plus II examinations again for remaining papers till the month of July. The annual Plus II exams for the remaining 23 subjects in all the streams will be held between July 1 and 15.

School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash, who chaired a meeting with department officials here on Monday, said the exams that had been stopped midway due to Covid-19 pandemic will resume from July 1 for which the formal notification will be issued by the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) soon.The Plus II examinations, which were scheduled to end on March 28, were stopped six days before the schedule due to spread of the virus.

The Minister also informed that the evaluation of answer sheets of subjects, which had already been conducted, will begin on June 1. CHSE officials said they are mulling to increase the number of examination centres this year for which reports has been sought from different districts.

“We have 58 offline and 33 online valuation centres, of which some centres have been converted into quarantine facilities to contain spread of coronavirus. The centres need to be vacated. Besides, we will require to follow the Covid-19 regulations during evaluation for which the number of centres need to be increased,” said a senior official from the CHSE. Around 16,000 teachers will be engaged for evaluation work.

Matric evaluation deferred again
The Minister said evaluation of answer sheets of the matriculation examinations of Board of Secondary Education (BSE), scheduled to resume from May 20, has been deferred by one day in view of cyclone Amphan. “The evaluation work will resume at 60 centres from May 21. Teachers from within 10 km radius of a centre will evaluate the papers. After one week’s review, we will decide whether the number of centres need to be increased,” Dash said. Around 23,000 teachers will be engaged for the evaluation. Results will be published within 45 days of evaluation.