By citing the lockdown extension, the Tamil Nadu state government has issued a revised board exam schedule for class X students in which the exams have been deferred by two weeks from the schedule that was announced earlier. 

According to the revised schedule, the board exam for class X will commence on June 15th and it will run till June 25th and along with revising the schedule for tenth-grade students, the government has also issued a fresh schedule for the pending examinations of Class XI and XII. The fresh schedules for the secondary and higher secondary board examinations have come exactly a day after the state has been imposed with the fourth spell of the lockdown. 

On May 12, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department has issued the first schedule in which it has stated that exams for tenth-grade students would commence on June 1st and would run till June 12th and the department had asserted that the adequate facilities would be arranged for the students to ensure that they don't face any hindrance during the examinations. 

However, the parents, teachers, associations, and the opposition parties had buzzed up over the sudden announcement and urged the state government to defer the examinations as the students would face a challenge in the transport that has been suspended in the wake of the lockdown. They claimed that the students are stranded in various locations due to the lockdown and its difficult to transport them to schools amid the Coronavirus outbreak. 

The Opposition parties had also demanded the government to defer the examinations and it was speculated that the schedule would be changed as the lockdown has been extended till May 31st with having no surety on when the transportation channels will be resumed. Amid the speculations, Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Sengottaiyan had met with Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Tuesday during which they discussed whether or not to revise the schedule. 

After meeting the Chief Minister, Sengottaiyan addressed the reporters during which he put out the fresh schedule for the class X board exams that would commence on June 15 and end on June 25. The Minister stated that the decision has been taken by citing the lockdown extension and with the view of maintaining social distancing, only ten students will be permitted to write the exams in a hall and the government will be installing 15,690 exam halls across the state. The Minister said the students who will be traveling inter-districts will be provided with the e-passes. It has been estimated that over 9 lakh students will be appearing for class X board exams. 

Along with the class X exams, the dates have also been revised for class XI and XII exams. According to the minister, the class XII students who missed their exams on March 24th due to lack of transports can re-appear for that particular exam on June 18th. Earlier, it was scheduled on June 4th, and the pending exams for Chemistry, Accountancy, and Geography for Class XI will be conducted on June 18th.

According to the revised schedule, the tenth students would write their language paper on June 15th, English on June 17th, Mathematics on June 19th, Optional language on June 20th, Science on June 22nd, Social Science on June 24th, and Vocational Subjects on June 25th and each paper will be given three hours duration and it will be ensured that the social distancing norms are being followed.