ICSE and ISC 2012 will begin a day early on February 27 so that an industrial strike by Citu-led trade unions does not inconvenience examinees on February 28. The dates of the other exams may also change.

About 2 lakh students will sit for the examination in Bengal, where industrial strikes often turn into a total bandh.

The strike also coincides with the Madhyamik history examination, which the Mamata Banerjee government has refused to reschedule so far. About 11 lakh students will write Madhyamik.

“We have brought forward the date of examinations because of the proposed industrial strike. There will be no examination on February 28. About 2 lakh students would benefit from the decision,” Gerry Arathoon, the officiating chief of the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations, which conducts ICSE and ISC, told Metro.

“The alterations in the rest of the schedule because of the change of dates will be announced tomorrow,” added Arathoon on Wednesday.

The rescheduled exam roster can be accessed at www.cisce.org.

Five years ago, the schedules of ICSE, ISC and Higher Secondary had to be altered after the Trinamul Congress, then the Opposition in Bengal, called a bandh to protest the Nandigram firing on March 14, 2007.

Biman Bose, the general secretary of the CPM, had urged the state board to defer the Madhyamik history exam since it was on the same day as the industrial strike. He suggested the exam, the schedule for which had been drawn up long before the strike was called, be deferred to February 29 (2012 is a leap year).

Gurudas Dasgupta, a veteran trade union leader, had also urged chief minister Mamata Banerjee to defer the history exam.

“We are waiting for instructions from the government on changing the schedule,” Madhyamik board president Chaitali Dutta said on Wednesday.