Edited clip of Mamata Banerjee goes viral claiming that state board exams have been cancelled

A short clip of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is going viral on social media where she can be heard announcing in Bengali that students of classes 10 and 12 do not have to appear for state board exams in 2021 and they’ll be promoted automatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The post on social media claims that Mamata Banerjee announced that the students of classes 10 and 12 will not have to give their state board exams in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One can see West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying, “Students could not attend schools due to the pandemic, and so, those appearing for the state board exams for classes 10 and 12 need not appear; they will be promoted automatically.”

The caption of the post says “There will be no state board exams for classes 10 and 12 this year.”

Fact Crescendo received this video for verification on our WhatsApp Fact Line Number- 9049053770 with the text post that said “Mamata Banerjee cancels state board exam for 10 and 12 in 2021.”

This video is also doing rounds on social media with a similar Bengali caption.

Facebook Post | Archive Link 

Fact Check-

We started our investigation by running a keyword search on Google because the viral video ends abruptly, the results led us to a press conference of the Bengal CM, which was posted on her official Facebook page on November 11, 2020. We found that the original video is 11 minutes long. Upon listening to the video, we found the viral portion of Mamata Banerjee’s statement on state board exams at the timestamp of 3:09 minutes.

We found that Mamata initially made a wrong statement while reading out the government decision over the state board exams for classes 10 and 12 this year. Initially she can be heard saying, “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.”

The next moment one can hear her clarify immediately and starts reading the government notification again. She then says that “The education department has decided that students appearing for classes 10 and 12 state board exams in 2021 do not have to appear for pre-board exams in their schools. They will be automatically allowed for the board exams”. The decision was taken due to the pandemic situation.

Next, we started finding news reports related to 10 and 12^th state board examination. According to a TOI report it clearly states that the Bengal CM has announced that examinees of state board exams for classes 10 and 12 would not have to appear for selection tests in 2021 as they could not attend schools due to the pandemic, and they will be allowed to sit for state board exams.

Archive Link

Conclusion- Fact Crescendo found that the viral video is edited and shared out of context. Mamata Banerjee did make a wrong statement initially but then rectified it and said that students will not have to appear for pre-boards and can appear directly for the board exams.