Tripura reschedules board exams, to be conducted from June 5. Representational image/ file
Tripura government has rescheduled examinations of Madhyamik and Higher Secondary papers earlier postponed by Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) in the wake of COVID-19 induced lockdown.
Speaking to reporters in media briefing late evening on Thursday, Tripura education minister Ratan Lal Nath said while all examinations conducted by the state education board for candidates appearing with new syllabus in their Madhyamik exams were completed before lockdown, exams of few papers for old syllabus candidates were still left to be completed. Some papers of Higher Secondary (+2 stage) examinations were left as well.
“We have decided to reschedule these examinations and hold them from June 5. All these exams would start from 12 noon and continue till 3:15 PM”, he informed. 27,142 candidates including 13,908 male and 13,234 females were enrolled for writing TBSE Higher Secondary exam papers this year.
The higher secondary examinations which started on March 2 were scheduled till March 31 while Madhyamik examinations which started on March 3, were supposed to be held till March 27.
With the revised examination routine, Sanskrit and Statistics papers for H/S candidates would be held on June 5, exam for Economics paper would be held on June 6, Psychology on June 8, Arabic and Music papers are scheduled for June 9, Geography paper is scheduled for June 10 and Home Management & Home Nursing and Nutrition papers would be held on June 11.
The minister informed that all examination centres would be sanitised before commencement of exams and social distance would be maintained between candidates in 82 venues spread across 58 examination centres.
One of these exam centres now come under Red Zone at Dhalai district, where over 160 COVID-19 patients were identified in three BSF battalions. The centre would be shifted elsewhere outside the red zone, Nath said.
About 309 candidates — who appeared Madhyamik examination from old syllabus — would also write their Physical science paper on June 5 and Life Science paper on June 6. These exams would be held in 60 centers.
Madrasa students in the ‘fazil’ segment (senior secondary level) would write their Economics papers on June 6 and Arabic paper on June 9 while those in ‘Alim’ (Madhyamik) segment would write their remaining papers between June 5-9.
Earlier in April, the state government started evaluating answer-scripts of TBSE-conducted Madhyamik and Higher Secondary papers which were held before lockdown, even as lockdown was not lifted.
The education minister also said his government has requested private schools not to hike fees and try to relax fee structure during lockdown crises. Tripura has 309 private schools with nearly a lakh students enrolled in them. An estimated 5,000 teachers serve in these schools.