Uttarakhand decides to conduct remaining board exams after June 15

Teachers have also been asked to start correcting papers for subjects whose examinations have already been conducted.

Dehradun: The Uttarakhand Board of School Education (UBSE) has decided to conduct the remaining board exams of classes X and XII after June 15. State Education Secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram held a meeting with department officials and district magistrates in this regard on Tuesday.

Over two months after the board exams were postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Uttarakhand education department has now asked officials from the department to start preparing for board exams which will be held post-June 15. Teachers have also been asked to start correcting papers for subjects whose examinations have already been conducted.

During a meeting with the District Magistrate and Department officials on Tuesday evening, R Meenakshi Sundaram, Secretary of School Education in the state, asked them to find out which school boards are the examination centers where quarantine facility has also been established.

To fight the rising cases of COVID-19 in Uttarakhand, government schools were turned into quarantine centers.

The secretary for school education has asked officials to start working on vacating the schools which are board exam centres but quarantine centers have been set at present, and start preparing to conduct the remaining exams there. The secretary has asked officials to shift the quarantine centers by June 15, indicating that exams are likely to take place in the third week of June.

Asharani Painuly, chief education officer of Dehradun who also attended the meeting said, “The secretary has asked us to earmark schools that were centres for board examination but now are being used as quarantine facilities as board examinations are most likely to start from June 18. The correction of examination papers will also start soon so that the results can be declared by mid-July.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Education in Nainital, the district with the most cases, is now looking into hostels of private institutions, which can be used as quarantine centers.

Chief Education Officer of Nainital HL Gautham said that hostels of private institutions for higher education will now be used as quarantine centers as cases are increasing and government schools will be used for upcoming board exams.