Odisha govt cancels remaining papers of class 12 examinations

Bhubaneswar: In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Odisha government on Wednesday announced cancellation of the pending class 12 examinations of the state board.

School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash said it is not possible to conduct the pending plus-II examinations for Arts, Science and Commerce streams which were scheduled to be held from March 23 to 28, due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), which organizes the plus-II examinations, has adopted an assessment scheme following the of guidelines laid down by a committee of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for the cancelled papers.

As per the scheme, the best performance of the students in the examination papers already held will be taken as a yardstick to declare the results.

The students who have appeared for five papers, the average mark will be decided based on their top three performances. If an examinee has written four papers, his average will be figured out from the top two scores, Dash said.

Students, who have written only three papers, the average of marks obtained in the best two papers, will be awarded in the papers, for which examinations could not be conducted, he said.

If the students are not happy with their marks, they can appear for an improvement examination after the COVID crisis eases.

Stating that efforts are on to declare the results by the end of July, the minister said steps will be taken to safeguard the interests of the students and their careers.