Bengal’s secondary and higher secondary examinations, which were due in June, will not be held next month, state chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay announced on Saturday.

“No exams will be held in June. Madhyamik Pariksha was due in the first half of June. Higher secondary exam was scheduled for the second half of June. But as we decided to suspend certain activities today, this will result in exam conducting bodies requiring more time in organising these exams. These exams will not be held in June,” said Bandyopadhyay.

“The education department, in consultation with the concerned board, council, will work out a reasonable time frame. Students and their guardians do not have to worry. They will be given reasonably well time, notification in due time.”

The Madhyamik exam was scheduled to be held from June 1 to 10 and the HS examinations from June 15 till July 2.

On April 30, the state HS council had said the higher secondary examinations would be held as scheduled in June.

On Saturday, an official of the school education department said “the ground situation, as far as Covid is concerned, has changed drastically between April 30 and mid-May”.

He said the count of cases was rising exponentially across the state and exposing students to an exam venue at a time like this, would amount to putting their health at risk.

“We cannot allow that. It is time to stay indoors as much as possible. The higher secondary council had even announced that HS examinees would appear for the examination at their own institution (home venue), instead of writing the test in June at an away centre. Even this decision was not found tenable because of the change in scenario,’’ said the official.

Early this week, the presidents of both exam conducting bodies left it to the state government to decide whether exams could be held on schedule.

The headmaster of a south Calcutta school said: “Since college admission is largely dependent on the Class XII marks, the council was trying to conduct the school-leaving exams on time. But everything is in a limbo again.”

The CBSE and ICSE council both have deferred their Class XII board exams, which were to be held in May, because of the pandemic.

The new dates will be announced once the authorities review the situation in the first week of June.

An official of the education department said, they were also keeping a watch on what the boards like CBSE and ICSE council do in the first week of June.