The Puducherry government on Wednesday announced cancellation of all examinations for students of Standard 1-9 in the Union Territory as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-I9.

Director of School Education P T Rudra Goud said in a release that the students were also granted "automatic promotion to the next higher class" without exams.

He said with the lockdown now in force, it would not be feasible to conduct annual examinations and hence the final exams were cancelled and students were granted automatic promotion.

Goud told PTI that the schools adopting the State Board syllabus are covered by this announcement and it is applicable for all the private schools also.

The government had already declared holiday for 21 days from Wednesday to all government offices except those engaged in essential services like health, water supply, electricity, milk supply among others.