Bhubaneswar, Nov. 1: The online filling up of forms for the High School Certificate Examinations, 2017, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha, began today. The submission of forms will continue till November 17.

Students studying in government and private schools affiliated to the BSE are required to fill up their forms at www.bseodisha.ac.in. Submission of fees without fine will continue till 11.45pm on November 16 and submission of forms till the midnight of November 17.

"Instructions for filling up the forms have been mentioned in the website. The final date for submission of fees with fine is November 21 (till 11.45 pm)" said BSE president Sushant Das.

There were speculations about holding of the annual matriculation examination in February due to the upcoming panchayat elections in the state. The BSE officials, after a high-level meeting last month decided to conduct the matriculation examination on February 28, 2017. Das also informed that the matriculation exams will end on March 10.

Though the 2017 matriculation examination will be delayed by a week, the BSE officials clarified that it would not affect the overall process of evaluation of answer sheets and the publication of results.

However, the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) is yet to declare the dates for its annual Plus Two examinations scheduled to be held from the first week of March. Although the council is yet to decide on the dates for the tests, it has already decided to conclude the exams by the end of March.

"The results of the science exams will be declared first in the month of May, so that the students intending to go for different entrance exams does not face any problems," said the chairman of CHSE, Basudev Chattoi.

The state election commission too is yet to formally announce the date of the panchayat polls, although it has clarified that they will be held in February. The commission had asked the school and mass education department officials to fix dates of both the matriculation and Plus Two examinations before it announces the dates for the panchayat polls.