Govt decides to prepone 10th, 12th class exams in view of Panchayat elections, Students under distress

Srinagar: The J&K government has decided to prepone 10th and 12th class annual examinations in view of the Panchayat elections which are likely to commence from the first week of December.

A meeting was convened by the outgoing principal secretary school education department, Asgar Samoon on Thursday wherein the decision was taken to reschedule the exam in view of the upcoming Panchayat elections.

The meeting was attended by BOSE officials, deputy commissioners and officers of the school education department.

A top official said that the government is tentatively planning to conduct Panchayat elections and hence has asked BOSE to prepone the exam. “But no specific dates have been given to the Board to start the exam. We are waiting for the government to take the decision on it,” the official said.

A board official however said it will be a hectic exercise for them to reschedule the exams. “There is no chance of delaying it further nor can we prepone it (the exam) keeping in view the resentment of the students who are already stressed,” the board official said.

The official said the government is mulling to hold the elections tentatively from the first week of December which will continue till February next year. “If the exams are conducted as per the scheduled dates we will complete it by December 15,” the board official said.

As already reported by this newspaper, chairperson JKBOSE Veena Pandita earlier stated that the exams for both the classes (10th and 12th) will be conducted after November 15.

The JKBOSE had delayed the exams to mid-November as students demanded that they should be given ample time for preparation.

The official said if the elections are deferred till the third week of December the exam of both the classes will be over by that time.

Meanwhile, the government decision to prepone the exams has put the students in distress. The nervous students say that they started their preparation as per the schedule announced by board authorities earlier. “But now, the government wants to prepone it for elections, which is completely unjustified. The government is deliberately putting students under stress by making such decisions,” said Arifa, a class 10th student.

“My daughter has gone under depression after she came to know that the government has decided to prepone the exams. She is not ready to appear in exams now,” said Rifat, mother of a class 12th student from Baramulla.

“Government is mulling to prepone the exams so that school buildings will get free early and can be utilized for election related work,” an official said.

Advisor to J&K Lieutenant Governor (LG) K K Sharma and JKBOSE Chairperson, Veena Pandita did not respond to repeated calls from this newspaper. (GK)