Bhubaneswar: As a significant number of students in Odisha did not appear in the Summative Assessment-II Exam, 2022 conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, the School and Mass Education Department asked the District Education Officers (DEOs) to provide a report in 10 days on the reasons behind students skipping the exam.

In a letter, the department’s Secretary Bishnupada Sethi directed the DEOs to conduct a school-wise analysis in their respective districts on the reason behind the absence of students. The DEOs have been asked to submit a report with the help of Google form within next 10 days positively.

The letter mentioned that as many as 43,489 candidates have not appeared in the SA-II exam which is part of the annual HSC examination.

“The absence of such large number of candidates in the annual HSC Examination (SA-II), 2022 is definitely a matter of concern,” it read.

The number of students who skipped the exam is highest in Mayurbhanj, Ganjam and Balangir districts.

Sethi added it is supposed that these students must have appeared the summative assessment-I examination and must have done the physical form filling work.

The letter asked the DEOs to carry out the school-wise analysis to understand why so large number of students remained absent from physically appearing the examination despite filling up the form physically.