PUNE Students appearing for Class 12 or HSC exams in March and April may have to miss the scheduled Service Selection Board (SSB) interview, which is mandatory for admissions to the National Defence Academy (NDA). SSB interviews take five days and are scheduled in over 10 cities across India, including Bangalore, Varanasi, Bhopal, Allahabad, Mysore, Dehradun, Gandhinagar, Vizag Vishakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Kolkata and Kapurthala. While the HSC exams end on April 7, the SSB interviews are scheduled beginning April 4.
Sharad Gosavi, chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), said that they cannot reschedule the exams. “However, we have written a letter to the commandant of the NDA requesting him to postpone the interview of students who are appearing for Class 12 exams this year. Students at the individual level can also reach out to the SSB board and explain their situation. Meanwhile, the eligibility for students is to pass the Class 12 exam. If students attend the SSB interview, they can reappear in the supplementary exam for Class 12 in July,” said Gosavi.
However, defense experts have opined that students should opt for the Class 12 exams over the interview as it is mandatory to pass Class 12 exams to qualify for the NDA. Speaking about the process, lt col Pradeep Brahmankar (retired) of Apex Career Academy, said that around 10 years back, SSB centres would give a date and if a person was not able to come on that day, he or she could attend an absentee batch.
“After that, they started giving candidates two or three dates. Now the SSB board communicates through email and gives three dates to the candidates. There is a primary date, secondary date and the absentee batch. These choices are fixed. The SSB board prefers that the candidates choose primary dates. In case the candidates are not able to attend primary as well as secondary dates, the candidates have to show proof for changing batches. But now for the past few years, the candidates have to choose the dates for the SSB interview as soon as the result is issued,” said Brahmankar. He added that once the number of candidates is fixed for an interview, then the rest of the candidates are allotted the dates automatically.
{{/usCountry}}“After that, they started giving candidates two or three dates. Now the SSB board communicates through email and gives three dates to the candidates. There is a primary date, secondary date and the absentee batch. These choices are fixed. The SSB board prefers that the candidates choose primary dates. In case the candidates are not able to attend primary as well as secondary dates, the candidates have to show proof for changing batches. But now for the past few years, the candidates have to choose the dates for the SSB interview as soon as the result is issued,” said Brahmankar. He added that once the number of candidates is fixed for an interview, then the rest of the candidates are allotted the dates automatically.
{{/usCountry}}“Firstly, the exam was postponed from September to November. The results came quite early. The interviews were expected to be conducted in January. But that did not happen. Boards like the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and ICSE are finishing with Class 12 exams by March. The SSB board will not consider individual state boards. So it is highly unlikely that the dates for SSB may change,” said Brahmankar.