Madhyamik 2021 will be held between June 1 and 10, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education announced on Saturday.

The exams are usually held between February and March every year but the pandemic and then the state elections, whose final dates have yet to be announced, forced the delay.

Each day’s test will start at 11.45am and continue till 3pm. The first 15 minutes will be allotted to the examinees for only reading question papers.

The first examination will be of the first language followed by the second language examination on June 2.

Geography exam will be held on June 3 followed by history on June 5 and mathematics on June 7. The life sciences exam will be held on June 8 followed by physical science on June 9. Madhyamik will end with the optional elective subjects exam on June 10.

The dates for the tests in shorthand, typewriting, music will be announced later, a circular issued by the board says.

Typewriting and shorthand exams will be conducted in Calcutta and Siliguri. The computer practical exams will be taken by individual schools and the practical for the vocational subjects will be conducted by the sector skill council or the individual schools.

Last month, the state government had pruned Classes X and XII syllabuses, as on-campus classes could not be held because of Covid.

The decision to hold board exams for Classes 10 and 12 in June came after Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ ruled out conducting them at least until February 2021.

HS schedule

The higher secondary examinations scheduled for June 30 have been put off and a fresh date will be announced for that day’s exams.

The decision was taken in view of Hul Divas, education minister Partha Chatterjee said on Thursday.

Hul Divas is observed on June 30 in memory of Sidho and Kanhu Murmu, who led the Santhal rebellion on June 30, 1855, against colonial oppression.

Several organisations had written to the government requesting that the exams not be held that day, the minister said.

Exams in statistics, geography, costing and taxation, home management and family resource management were scheduled to be held on June 30.

The HS exams that begin on June 15 were earlier scheduled to end on June 30.

The council had announced on Friday that exams of theory papers would be held between June 15 and 30.