The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) on Monday announced that the Common Entrance Test (CET) in the state has been postponed as the old dates clashed with the Lok Sabha elections.
According to a notification issued by the KEA, the CET exams will now be held on April 29 and April 30 and the Kannada exam for students in Bengaluru would be held on May 1.
The Biology and Mathematics papers will be held on April 29 while the Physics and Chemistry papers will be held on April 30. The Kannada paper (Bengaluru) will be held on May 1.
The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced that Karnataka would go to polls on April 18 and April 23. The Biology and Mathematics papers for CET were scheduled on April 23, the Physics and Chemistry papers on April 24 and the Kannada paper was scheduled on April 25.
“Teachers will be deployed for election duty. April 23 is polling day and also a holiday. Students who are of voting age will need the day to vote. There would be staff shortage due to election duty and availability of exam halls would have become a problem if the dates are not postponed,” said Girish, Executive Director of KEA.
The KEA held a meeting with officials of the PU Board on Monday morning, where the decision was taken to push the exam dates. “We could have not changed exam dates for April 24 and 25 but even the teachers need a break after pulling in over 20 hours of election duty at a stretch,” an official with the KEA said.
CET is the entrance exam which Class 12 and PUC II students must write to qualify for engineering, pharmacology and technical education courses in Karnataka.
The IIT-JEE exam will be held on April 7 and April 20 according to the dates prescribed.