The statewide lockdown imposed by the Tamil Nadu government to curb the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic has stalled the operations of various sectors and corridors in the state from moving ahead to the next phase. The unprecedented embargo had shut down the economical and educational corridors leaving the laborers and students to stay at home during the tenure of the lockdown. 

While the government has, last week, permitted some of the industries to resume the operations with minimal manpower, it is yet to pass the directive of re-opening the schools, to conduct the tenth board exams, and to release the results of the board exams of the class 12 students. The school education department has deferred the tenth board exams, which usually begin by March and end by April, by citing the lockdown, which has got its second extension last week and would be staying in place till May 17.

While addressing the reporters in Erode on Tuesday- May 5, 2020, Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Sengottaiyan has put out the developments concerning the board exams. He said that the board examination schedule for class 10 would be released in the third week of June after acquiring consent from the Chief Minister. 

He stated that the department has been preparing the schedule which would be released in the third week of June after the pandemic gets under control. He further added that the steps are being carried out to start the evaluation process of the answer sheets of class 12 board exam in June after the Chief Minister gives his nod. The minister's statement has come at a crucial time when the board exams and the publication of the results are facing an unprecedented delay.

According to the reports, the board exam for class 10 in the state would likely to commence at the end of June or at the beginning of July. As we reported earlier, the delay in the publication of class 12 results would result in the delay of the engineering counseling and admissions as the students would be going ahead for picking up the colleges and courses based on their board exam marks. Last month, the department has clarified that the class 10 board exams are not canceled, but it has been postponed in the wake of the lockdown.