Headless Board, Helpless Students

Srinagar, Jan 6: Chaos and uncertainty has gripped the secondary and senior secondary class students amid the delay by the government in declaring the result of the annual J&K Board of School Education Examination (JKBOSE) examination.

The JKBOSE examinations were conducted in November-December 2025, with 15 relaxations in the syllabus for the students in their annual examination.

Weeks after the culmination of the examination, Secretary JKBOSE told Greater Kashmir that the process for compilation of the class 10th result was in the final stage and would be declared in the first week of January.

Amid this, the JKBOSE was rendered headless as the former Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary), Higher Education Department (HED), Shantmanu, who was holding the additional charge of Chairman JKBOSE as an interim arrangement, attained superannuation on December 31, 2025.

Following his retirement, the JKBOSE could not go ahead with the completion of last stage formalities including the meeting supposed to be convened by the Result Declaration Committee (RDC) headed by Chairman JKBOSE.

“Since JKBOSE is headless, the meeting could not be convened to date while JKBOSE had decided to declare the class 10th result by January 5 or 6, 2026,” a top official of the School Education Department (SED) said.

“Besides delaying appointment of a permanent chairman for JKBOSE, the government did not make any arrangement to give charge of the post to any equivalent rank officer,” he said.

Due to this, the JKBOSE could not meet the deadline it had earlier set for the announcement of the results.

“The Chairman JKBOSE is the authority to approve the result after holding a meeting of the RDC. But the entire process got held up as there is no headway in the appointment of Chairman JKBOSE,” the official said.

Amid this, uncertainty and chaos have gripped the class 10th students who were expecting their results to be declared in the first week of January.

“The government should not have made any such announcement. It has created more chaos and confusion among the students,” Mudasir Khan, one of the parents, told Greater Kashmir.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Minister for Education, Sakina Itoo, said the appointment of Chairman JKBOSE was held up because of some issues.

“Before finalising the appointment, certain formalities are to be completed at different levels,” she told Greater Kashmir without divulging the details about the formalities to be completed.

The J&K Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in December last year submitted the name of a candidate to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha for his approval to the appointment of the Chairman JKBOSE.

Meanwhile, the Education Minister said there was no headway in making an additional charge arrangement for the post of Chairman JKBOSE.

“Our Secretary Education is already overburdened as he is holding an additional charge of the Higher Education Department,” Itoo said.

She said that the appointment of Secretaries was done by the Lieutenant Governor.

“The decision is taken by the LG, not the elected government,” the Education Minister said.

She said that the results of all the classes would be declared at the right time.

“Students should not be impatient,” Itoo said.