Online or Offline: Odisha's CHSE to announce exam mode for Class 12 board exams by end of February

With the Supreme Court dismissing a PIL seeking cancellation of offline exams for Classes X and XII to be conducted by all state boards, Odisha's Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) officials said the council is likely to announce its decision regarding the mode of exam and schedule for the Plus II Annual Higher Secondary Examination (AHSE) shortly.

To decide whether it should conduct the exams in offline or online mode, the CHSE had started consulting stakeholders including students, parents and teachers a week back.

As the stakeholders meeting is about to end, CHSE Vice-Chairman Tusar Kanti Tripathy said they are hopeful of announcing the mode of exams by February end. The exam schedule will also be shared shortly. 

Previously, the School and Mass Education department had indicated that the Plus II exams will be conducted in offline mode. However, as protests started mounting, it asked the council to consult the stakeholders before finalising the mode of exams.

School and College Lecturers and Employees Association convenor Golak Nayak said a majority of stakeholders during CHSE meetings have agreed for offline exams.

As Plus II classes had started from July 1 last year and resumed again after a month's gap from February 7 this year, teachers and other stakeholders, barring a few from the students community, have agreed for exams in offline mode.

On the other hand, UG students of various colleges staged demonstration in the Capital and blocked the Raj Mahal square in the city seeking exams in online mode citing that the syllabus is yet to be completed.  They claimed that exams in offline mode from  March will hamper their scores as they are not fully prepared.