A clipped video of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has gone viral with a false claim that she has announced that ‘no board exams’ will be held for the students of Class 10 and 12 of Bengal state board due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CLAIM
The viral clip of Banerjee was taken from a press conference and is shared with a caption in Bengali that read, “মাধ্যমিক এবং উচ্চমাধ্যমিক এর পরীক্ষা হবে না”
[Translation: There will be no examinations for secondary and higher secondary students.]
She is seen speaking in Bengali, where she can be heard saying, “Secondary and higher secondary exams 2021. Since there is a pandemic going one, no one is able to go to school, so, we will not have exams for those who were supposed to have them”.
Banerjee’s address is merged with a dance and a song at the end that says, “Mamata di once more” in Bengali, ahead of the polls.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We conducted a Google search for “Cancellation of West Bengal Board exams 2021” and found no reports that said that the board exams were cancelled. However, we found news reports that said that CM Banerjee had announced that “candidates appearing for class 10 and 12 board examinations conducted by the West Bengal Board next year will not have to appear for the mandatory pre-board examinations”.
The announcement was made on 11 November 2020 through a press conference. We found the original press conference broadcast live on her official Facebook page on the same day. The press conference lasted a little over 11 minutes. The viral clip can be seen at 3:09 seconds.
Banerjee originally misspoke when she said, “Students who will be appearing for classes 10 and 12 board exams will not have to give the exams and they will be automatically allowed”. But she immediately clarified and said that students will not have to appear for the test (pre-boards) and will be directly allowed to sit for the boards.
The video of West Bengal CM’s address was telecast on Odisha Television Network as evidenced by the logo and the watermark. We looked for the original video on their YouTube handle and found that the video was posted on 11 November.
The viral clip can be seen starting from 00:40.
Hence, we found that viral video claiming that West Bengal CM has said there will be no state board exams this year is false. The original video was clipped and Banerjee’s clarification was left out in the viral clip.
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