The expected exam duration for all of the boards across India is 3 hours. The same was the case for Tamil Nadu board exams initially. However, the time was shortened as the marks of the paper was reduced from 200 to 100 marks. Hence, the total marks for the classes 10 and 12 was also reduced to 600 from 1200 marks.

In the view of this reduction of timing by the government, there had been some of the objections raised by the students stating the time was not enough to complete the exam. C. Usharani, Director of Directorate of Government Examinations, Tamil Nadu had declared that the decision to increase the exam duration was taken after a meeting with both the Education Department Officials and the Chief Minister.

Following which on Tuesday, Directorate of Government Examinations announced that the duration for examination of Class10, 11 and 12 would be increased by 30 minutes. Due to which the current duration of 2 and half hours will be increased to 3 hours.

This decision was taken as the board had received requests from the children that such a less amount of time was not enough to give their best performance according to what was stated by K.A. Sengottaiyan, Minister for School Education.

Usharani has also stated that this decision has been taken after keeping in mind the students who will be appearing for the 10^th and 12^th examination in the year 2020, will have a new syllabus. This decision was also taken partly by keeping in mind the students’ comfort and welfare.

It has been observed that the examinations for class 10^th will be conducted from 27^th of March to 13^th of April 2020. Similarly, the examinations of class 11^th will be conducted from 4^th to 26^th of March 2020 meanwhile the exams for 12^th will commence from 2^nd March 2020 and will conclude on 24^th of March 2020.

This extension of time has encouraged students with the willingness to give their best in the exams and score good marks as well. The students can now check out the announcement on the official website: www.dge.tn.gov.in.

Steps to check the official announcement:

• Step 1: Go to the official website: dge.tn.gov.in
• Step 2: Once you reach the homepage click on the link mentioning the ‘Extension of time for board exams’
• Step 3: You’ll get redirected to a new page
• Step 4: A document will open in the form of PDF
• Step 5: Download the PDF and save it for further references.