This year’s matric and intermediate board exams conducted by Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) will, in all likelihood, begin from the last week of March, sources in the state education board said on Saturday, adding that preparations were on to ensure these were held offline.

Last year, JAC held inter and matric exams in June owing to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Around 7 lakh students had appeared for the exams. With Covid-19 cases on a steady decline since the last few weeks, officials said that the exams would be held offline.

“In all likelihood, matric and inter exams will take place from March 25,” said a senior official, adding that they have held meetings with the state education department to brief officials on JAC’s preparedness.

The official added that in another week-10 days, JAC is expected to release model question papers.

“All district education officers have been asked to prepare and send their assessment report on exam centres, vailability of infrastructure and shortcomings if any to decide on the exam centres. Last year, we had about 2,400 centres for matric and inter exams,” he said.

JAC chairman Anil Kumar Mahto, who met with education minister Jagarnnath Mahto two days ago, maintained that the government would notify exam dates soon, but conceded it was veering around to scheduling papers from March 25 onwards.

“The minister asked us to explore if exams can be held at home centres in the interest of the students but we apprised him about the practical problems in doing so. In many districts, we don’t have proper and secure places to keep question papers.”