Jamshedpur, Jan. 12: About 3.90 lakh candidates from across the state will appear for the Matriculation and Intermediate examinations slated to commence from February 21, the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) announced in Ranchi today.

The apex body for the tests announced that the number of students appearing for Matriculation test will be 2.61 lakh while the rest are for the Intermediate.

JAC chairman Shaligram Yadav informed The Telegraph that there has been an increase of about 28,000 students for Matriculation exam and 10,000 for Intermediate examination over last year. Keeping in view this increase, examination centres have also been increased.

According to Yadav, altogether 458 examination centres have been earmarked across 22 districts for Matriculation test and 150 centres for Intermediate examination. The council decided that both the examinations will commence on the same day (February 21).

JAC officials informed that care has been taken to identify the examination centres in rural and urban areas. ?We have tried to fix centres in such a way so that the candidates could reach them without any difficulty,? said a senior member of the council.

According to officials, a detailed programme of the examinations will be published in local dailies in the next few days. The chairman of the council said the results would be declared within June 10, the deadline specified by Supreme Court.

The first sitting will be allotted for Matriculation examination, while the Intermediate examination will take place in the second sitting. After March 3, the last day of Matriculation examination, the Intermediate tests will be conducted in both the sittings. The intermediate examination will conclude on March 6.