Bhubaneswar, June 2: Delay in publication of Class X results conducted by the Orissa Board of Secondary Education (BSE) is likely to hit around 4.85 lakh examinees of the state. The matriculation result, which is usually declared by June 20 every year, is now expected to be out in the last week of June.

The ICSE board has already declared the Class X result while CBSE Class X result is expected to be announced by June 5.

Citing the reason for the delay in the examination results, school and mass education minister, Pratap Jena said: “Because of the census operation, the publication of the result has been delayed. The result will be declared between June 25 and June 30. We have taken all steps to give an error free result to the students”.

The High School Certificate examination, which was scheduled to begin on February, was delayed for nearly one month and started on March 16 and continued till April 4. During the census operation, the state government had engaged all teachers in primary school, middle English (ME) and high schools. The census operation began in February 9 and continued till February 29 with a revision round from March 1 to 5. Secretary of BSE, Nihar Ranjan Mohapatra, also attributed the reason for delay to the census work.

“The compilation process is going on in full swing. The coding work is almost complete,” he said.

Ratnakar Das, a student who appeared for the Class X examinations said: “Each year the result is published between June 15 and June 20. A delay of another 10 days will hit the students hard. Because of this, there is an apprehension that most of us will not be able to apply for colleges outside the state.”

Another student, Rama Hari Nayak, expressed similar sentiments.

“The BSE must try to publish the result as soon as possible keeping in mind the interests of the students.”

The board officials said in order to expedite the entire process the BSE has decided to give the original certificates and mark sheets to the candidates within seven days of the publication of result.

“As a result, the students would not lose time running around to secure their original certificates and mark sheets. They can appear for entrance exams for admission to colleges outside the state,” secretary Das Mohapatra said.