Bhubaneswar, Oct. 6: The confusion over first-year examinations in Plus Two was laid to rest today after school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra made a formal announcement about not holding the exams this year.

The announcement came following a high-level meeting presided over by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the secretariat here.

The news brought a sigh of relief among new first-year students who were caught in a dilemma after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced that it would introduce the exams from the academic year.

Until now, Plus Two students only had to appear for an examination only once at the end of the second year. There was no provision for exams in the first year.

"It was unanimously decided that there will be no board examination for the state's Plus Two first-year students this year as the students have very little time to prepare for it. The state government, after reviewing various aspects of the process, will fix the modality to conduct the board examination next year," Mishra said.

Prior to today's meeting, the department had held a meeting on the subject where the Council of Higher Secondary Education had been asked to produce some additional information. Apart from Padhi, higher education minister Pradip Panigrahi, school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra, R. Balakrishnan and higher education secretary G.V.V. Sharma were present at the meeting.

The council that had already prepared a roadmap for the exams and planned to introduce it along the pattern of the CBSE with 50 multiple choice questions on OMR (optical mark reading) sheets.

Academics have rued that in the absence of first year exams, the students did not take the course seriously and treated the first year syllabus as insignificant. This ultimately led to poor scores in Plus Two second year and in national-level entrance exams.