Class XII results only in June, may delay engg counselling

Registration To Begin Along With Evaluation, Says Minister

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:14.04.2020

The extension of Covid-19 lockdown till April 30 means Class XII results can be expected only in June, and this might delay the online counselling for engineering intake. The state higher education department is planning to begin registration of online applications for engineering counselling as soon as evaluation of Class XII answer scripts begins, to reduce the wait time. Engineering admission in the state is based on students’ Class XII score.

More than 8 lakh candidates wrote the Class XII exams conducted from March 2 to 22. The results were originally expected on April 24 but evaluation was postponed due to the lockdown.

“The evaluation may begin in the second week of May. The process will take two weeks and we can publish the results only in June,” an official from the school education department said.

If the lockdown ends on April 30, it may take a few days to make necessary arrangements and disinfect evaluation centres. “The evaluation can be started only after public transport services resume,” officials added.

The state government also announced that it would conduct a re-exam for 34,000 students who were absent for the final exam on March 22. Meanwhile, CBSE is yet to finish conducting the Class XII exams.

“Delay in Class XII results will affect the engineering counselling schedule as admission is based on the score,” a source in the directorate of technical education (Dote) said.

Like last year, Dote was entrusted to conduct online engineering counselling and officials were gearing up for it. The state government also formed a high level committee to monitor the process.

“The higher education department is ready to conduct online engineering counselling but Class XII answer script evaluation is yet to start. We will begin registering online applications for counselling soon as that begins,” higher education minister K P Anbalagan said.

Those interested can register and participate in the online counselling after the results are declared. The department is also planning to speed up the counselling process after the lockdown ends.

“We will release the counselling schedule after the lockdown ends,” Anbalagan said.

The extension of lockdown has also cast doubts on whether Class X exams would be conducted. “The directorate of government examinations will conduct the Class X exams. We need just five days to conduct them and it will mostly be in the last week of May,” an official from the school education department said.

The higher education department is ready to conduct online engineering counselling but Class XII answer script evaluation is yet to start. We will begin registering online applications for counselling soon as that begins

K P ANBALAGAN |

Higher edu minister