The Bengal education department will announce on Friday how state board students of Classes X and XII will be evaluated this year.

Madhyamik as well as the state higher secondary exams have been scrapped this year because of a surge in Covid-19 cases.

“The education department will announce tomorrow how Madhyamik (secondary) and higher secondary students will be evaluated. The results will be published in July,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee said in response to a question during a media briefing on Thursday.

An official of the state education department said details of the evaluation would be announced by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education.

While announcing on June 7 that the secondary and the higher secondary exams would not be held this year because of Covid, the chief minister had asked the presidents of the two exam-conducting bodies to get details of the evaluations vetted by her.

“She had also instructed them to keep an eye on the CBSE’s decision regarding the evaluation methodology,” the official said.

A six-member committee had been constituted to suggest possible methods of assessment. “Factoring in the developments in court on Thursday, the recommendation of the experts and the exam-conducting bodies’ reports, an announcement will be made on Friday,” said an official.

The focus is on publishing results at the earliest so undergraduate admissions are not affected. Several institutions have announced how they are going to admit students to undergraduate programmes.

“The earlier the results are out the better. This can happen only after the evaluation methodology is announced. The CBSE and the ICSE council are going to publish their results soon. If our results are delayed, students of the Bengal board will lag behind others in the race for college berths,” another official of the state education department said.

Mamata had underscored that point herself. “It has to be ensured that our students do not lose out to students from other boards.... Therefore, the evaluation has to be completed at the earliest,’’ she had said on June 7.