Guwahati, June 8: Assam Education Minister, Ranoj Pegu on Tuesday announced that the Class 10(HSLC) and 12 (HSSLC) board exams will be held between August 1 and August 15.

The announcement of the government comes when the students are demanding the cancellation of the exams in view of the current Covid-19 pandemic. On Sunday, the students started an online campaign on Twitter with over 1 million tweets seeking the cancellation of Class 10 and Class 12 board exams.

The education minister said a standard operating procedure (SOP) on holding the exams will be announced after a meeting with all the stakeholders. Pegu said, “The government will soon come with an SOP in this regard after a final call by the health department. The examination centres are required to strictly adhere to the Covid-19 protocols. The final decision in this regard will be taken in the next 7 to 10 days.”

The education minister said that the modalities and timetable will be published soon. The government of India has insisted on completing the entire exam process by September 5 to prevent any academic loss of the students.

Pegu informed that the state health department has apprised them that the Covid situation will improve in July and it won’t be a convenient time to conduct the board due to the threat of virus infection that is likely to persist for a few more weeks.

Meanwhile, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has demanded the government to intimate the modalities of the exams and revised the normalisation formula to be adopted for conducting the exams.

AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said, “This is an unusual situation. We appeal to the government to conduct the board exams in a simplified manner. The interest of the students must be safeguarded.”