Three weeks ahead of the commencement of the Class 12 board exams in Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations has on Monday postponed the language exam that is scheduled to be held on May 3, exactly one day after the declaration of the Tamil Nadu election results. 

According to reports, the directorate has issued an official statement in which it has said that the language exam will be postponed in view of the counting of votes of the state assembly polls on May 2. Instead of taking place on May 3, the language exam will be held on May 31. 

The directorate further clarified that no changes have been made in the schedule of other exams and the rest of the exams will be held as per the schedule that has already been released. The state government body added that the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be followed during the exams will be announced later. 

The development has come six days after the state assembly polls and when the government has affirmed that the board exam for the class 12 students will take place as per the schedule, amid the demand to cancel the examinations owing to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state government has earlier ordered to shut down physical classes in the schools and canceled the board exams for class 10 students for the second consecutive year. 

The government has also canceled exams for the students of classes 9 and 11 and encouraged the schools to conduct the classes online. However, class 12 students have been attending physical classes with the view of the board exams and they are three weeks away from the exams. In its first schedule, the exams would commence on May 3 and will end on May 21. 

In the latest schedule, the government has deferred the Tamil language exam from May 3 to May 31 and the students will now directly write the English exam on May 5 followed by Communicative English, Ethics, Indian Culture, Computer Science, and Political Science on May 7, Physics, Economics, and Computer Technology on May 11, Mathematics, Zoology, Commerce, and Agricultural Science on May 17, Biology, Botany, History, Business Mathematics on May 19, Chemistry, Accountancy, and Geography on May 21, and  Tamil on May 31.