The Uttar Pradesh Board of Secondary Education on Thursday announced that the Class X and XII exams will be held from February 16 to March 20. The schedule is likely to clash with the assembly elections if the Election Commission (EC) sticks to a schedule similar to the 2012 polls.
The announcement of exam dates comes a day after the EC had asked states that are going to polls to not announce the dates without their consultation. The poll schedule for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa will be announced by the EC later this month or early January.
The state's Chief Electoral Officer T Venkatesh and Principal Secretary (Secondary Education) Jitendra Kumar will be meeting the EC officials on Friday in the capital. The polls in 2012 were scheduled from February 8 to March 3. The results were declared on March 6 following which the government was sworn-in on March 15.
The EC is expected to announce a similar schedule this time as well.
"The Board is yet to announce a detailed schedule for every paper... Exams have been organised around a similar time during the last three years. In 2016, the exams were held between February 18 and March 21...," Uttar Pradesh Board of Secondary Education Director Amar Nath Verma was quoted by the Indian Express as saying.
Verma added that the Board is yet to inform the EC about the exam schedule. He also said: "The Election Commission is a higher authority. If it asks us, we will have to change our schedule. Otherwise, we will stick to the date that we have announced."
