Bhubaneswar, Oct. 14: Officials of the Board of Secondary Education are afraid that it would be difficult for them to fix dates for the next year's high school certificate (HSC) examinations, which will coincide with panchayat elections.

The State Election Commission yesterday confirmed that they would hold the rural polls in February next year. Usually, the board holds the HSC examinations in February every year and the dates are announced sometime in November the preceding year. But this year, the board has already received an order from the school and mass education department not to conduct the examinations in February.

Board president Sushanta Kumar Das today told The Telegraph that they had not yet decided on the dates for the next year's HSC tests. However, he said it would be too early to predict whether the examinations would be delayed for the polls.

In another development, the school and mass education department and the State Election Commission have sought from the board a tentative schedule for next year's HSC examinations.

However, scotching the speculation that rural polls might affect the examinations, school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra today said both the polls and the examinations were equally important and would be conducted on appropriate dates.

"The exams will be conducted at right time and the results will also be published accordingly. The dates and other details will be announced later," said Mishra.

About six lakh students are expected to appear for the examinations this year.

Das told The Telegraph that the board had been holding a series of meetings to find out the suitable dates for the HSC examinations without affecting the rural polls.

"During the elections, the teachers will be engaged in the poll process. This will make conducting the examinations around the time of the polls all the more difficult. Besides, safety of question papers would be a major problem as the schools would be used for election purpose," said another board official. He said the HSC examinations should be held about a week after the completion of the poll process.

State Election Commission secretary Rabindranath Sahu said the last panchayat elections had been 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 commission has decided to start the poll process before March.

However, the commission is yet to notify the exact date of the election. "We have asked the school and mass education department and the board to first fix a convenient schedule for the HSC examinations," Sahu said.