Vikash Sharma

School and Mass Education Minister, Samir Ranjan Dash on Monday said that Class 10 and 12 students should to be ready with their preparations for the Board examinations.

Dash told reporters that the Covid-19 situation is improving and a look at the present situation reveals the downward trend of the infection graph. “Taking into account the present Covid-19 situation, there are possibilities of holding the Board examinations.”

It is pertinent to mention here that already the summative examination-1 for the Class 10 students has been completed in the State.

As per the Minister, the department will always try to ensure that the examinations are held and the results are published on time. The Minister, however, clarified that the State government will take an appropriate decision on the conduct of the examinations after reviewing the Covid situation.

“Be it Class 10 or 12, the students should be ready for the examinations. If any special situation arises in the country as well as the State, as far as Covid-19 is concerned, the government will take a call accordingly. But given the present scenario, there is every possibility for the conduct of the examinations,” Dash added.

The Odisha government had earlier reduced the syllabus as part of the reforms which were initiated following the cancellation of the Matriculation and other examinations last year due to Covid-19 situation.

At present, the State is showing a declining trend as far as the daily reporting of Covid-19 cases are concerned. 7291 new cases of Covid-19 were reported from different parts of the State in the past 24 hours.

However, the Covid-19 threat still looms large as there has been a rise in the number of cases triggered by the new variant, Omicron.

“Previous analysis suggests that around 60% of Omicron cases in Odisha are local contacts. Very soon, the variant will be in community transmission stage in Odisha. As transmission rate of Omicron is high, cases might explode any moment,” said Public health director Niranjan Mishra today.

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