CLASS XII EXAMS BE HELD EARLY REQUEST PARENTS

PANJIM: A group of parents have made a representation to the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education requesting the body to conduct the class XII board examinations at an earlier date.

The exams normally begin in mid-March and go on till the end of March or early April.

Parents have now asked the Board to begin the exams on March 1 and end it by mid-March. They say that the late exams give students less time to prepare for competitive exams to get into national professional institutes like IITs, BITs, national medical colleges, etc.

Exams to these institutes take place in March or early April every year.  The parents, incidentally, had petitioned the Goa Board during previous years too.

"In Goa, the preliminary exams are held from February 15 to March 15, while in most other states they end by February 15. This leaves Goan aspirants with a handful of days to revise for competitive tests. Efforts to convey this fact to the state government have consistently failed," a parent said.

Owner of a coaching class said, "I see that students who come for coaching have the enthusiasm to study only till December. This changes by February when schools make them answer up to five preliminary exams before the boards. The late Goa Board exams makes matters worse for the students."

In 2004-05 no students from Goa were able to crack the IIT entrance exams; in 2005-06 three were able to get through.  The following year, seven cleared the test and in 2007-08 11 were selected.The number of students clearing the exam has touched 30 in the last two years. (TNN)