Mita Mukherjee

The Odisha government cancelled its 2021 class X board examination in view of the rising Covid-19 cases in the state, the state’s school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash announced on Wednesday.

The class X examinations were scheduled to be conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha from May 3.

The minister said the results of students will be prepared by the board as per its  provisions. Students who will not be satisfied with the marks will be given an opportunity to appear in the exam later when the Covid-19 situation improves.

“ In view of the Covid-19 situation, the state government decided to cancel the 2021 Class X board exam. Evaluation of students will be done by the Board of Secondary Education as per its provisions. Students who will not be satisfied with the marks awarded to them will be given the opportunity to appear in the examination later when the Covid-19 situation improves,” Samir Ranjan Dash said.

Odisha has reported 4,851 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths in the state in the last 24 hours, according to a health bulletin of the state health department on Wednesday.

The state government, however, has kept the class XII examination conducted by the Council of Higher Secondary Education postponed. On April 15, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that both Class X and XII examinations would be postponed.

Two national boards including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) announced cancellation of the CBSE class X and ICSE (Class X) examinations respectively. Some state boards too have cancelled their Class X board examinations in view of the rise in numbers of Covid-19 cases in their states.  

A section of students had staged protests in front of the chief minister’s residence in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday demanding cancellation of the Class X board examinations.      

School and mass education minister Dash today said that the government has also cancelled class X examinations to be conducted by the Odisha State Board of Madrasa Education.

Chief minister, Naveen Patnaik  had also announced suspension of all offline classes for students of classes IX to XII on the same day in view of the surge in number of Covid-19 cases in the state.

Also read: ICSE 2021 examinations cancelled: CISCE