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Exams in West Bengal to be rescheduled due to elections

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Assembly elections that are to be held in six phases over three weeks starting April 18 have precipitated a change in the examination schedule for universities in the State and may also result in postponement of the joint entrance exam, officials told The Hindu on Friday.

Calcutta University authorities convened a meeting of the examination committee on Thursday and announced that all exams have been postponed and shall begin only after the elections. The decision will affect nearly three lakh students of 134 colleges affiliated to the University.

The final year exams of the University were scheduled to begin on April 19 but will now begin on May 18. Similarly the other exams have also been postponed, said Calcutta University Pro-Vice Chancellor Dhrubojyoti Chattopadhyay.

Thousands involved

The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination for admission to engineering and medical colleges across the State is also scheduled to be held on April 17, the eve of the first phase of polling. About 130,000 students are appearing for the exam this year.

The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board authorities are yet to make up their mind on postponing the exam as they are bound by a Supreme Court order to announce the results by June 15.

“We are yet to make a decision on postponing the exam. We are collecting information about the situation in north Bengal [where the first phase of polling is to be held] and will make a decision based on it,” said Board Chairman Siddhartha Dutta.

The elections may also affect the examination schedule of Jadavpur University, a decision on which will be taken at the next faculty council meeting.

“The examinations of our Arts faculty in any case were to be held after May 10 [the last day of polling]. However, the examinations of the faculties of Science and Engineering may overlap with the election schedule,” said University Registrar Pradip Ghosh. “The exam schedule for engineering students will have to be carefully planned as varsity authorities will conduct exams for two semesters,” he added.

The exams for the current semester are being held on time, but the exams for the previous semester are also pending.

The semester exams that were to have been held in November last year could not be held because of a mass boycott called by the faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union in protest against a police lathi-charge on the campus.

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