Bhubaneswar, Oct. 17: State Election Commission's decision to conduct panchayat election around the same time in February next year when both the higher secondary and Plus Two examinations are scheduled has caused much confusion.
The state government has called a meeting on Wednesday to finalise the dates.
Both the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) and the Council of Higher Secondary Examination (CHSE) are yet to decide the dates for the matriculation and Plus Two examinations respectively.
While the HSC examinations are usually held in the last week of February, the Plus Two exams are held in the first week of March. However, the practical exams begin in January and continue till mid February. This has led to an apprehension among teachers, students as well as parents.
Council chairman Basudev Chattoi said no decision had been taken on shifting the Plus Two examination dates. "Shifting the exam dates will be problematic as there are various national-level exams lined up," he said.
BSE president Sushanta Kumar Das said: "The dates for the HSC examination have not been finalised. It is too early to predict if the exam will be delayed," he said.
He, however, said that conducting the examination during the election would be difficult, as teachers will be engaged in the election process. Besides, safety of question papers would be a major problem as the schools would be used for election purpose.
The last panchayat elections were held between February 11 and 19 in 2012. Since the tenure of the panchayats is going to be over on March 10 next year, the election panel has decided to start the poll process before March. However, the commission has not notified the exact date of election.
The commission has informed the school and mass education department to fix a convenient schedule for both matriculation and Plus Two exams. Representatives of BSE and CHSE and other senior members of the department will attend the meeting to decide on the dates.
Earlier, school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra had said that both the panchayat polls and HSC examinations were important and would be conducted on appropriate dates.
