A short clip of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is going viral on social media in which she can be seen announcing that the Class 10 and Class 12 board exams will not be held in Bengal and the students will be automatically promoted due to the coronavirus pandemic situation.

A Facebook user name Arup Chowdhury shared the video with a caption, “There will be no state board exams for classes 10 and 12 this year.”(Translated from Bengali). In the viral video clip, Mamta Banerjee is saying in Bengali " 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 to appear; they will be promoted automatically".

Fact Check

In our investigation, we found that the viral claim is false that CM Mamata Banerjee has announced that ‘no board exams’ will be held for the students of Class 10 and 12 of the Bengal state board and the students will be automatically promoted due to the coronavirus pandemic situation. The viral clip is edited and in the original video CM Mamata Banerjee initially made a wrong statement but she immediately clarified herself.

After doing research on Google using related keywords we didn't found any news reports claiming that the board exams were canceled in West Bengal in 2021.

However, we found a news report according to which the West Bengal government has canceled the selection test for WB Board Exam 2021 in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on 11 November 2020 that candidates of classes 10, 12 appearing for their Board Exams next year can directly appear for the Board exams to be conducted by West Bengal Boards.

We also found the original press conference of the Bengal CM, which was posted on her official Facebook page on November 11, 2020. You can see the viral clip from 3:09 seconds onwards.

In the video, it can be seen the CM Mamata Banerjee initially made a wrong statement that “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 "The education department has taken a decision that those willing to take 2021 exams for class 10 and 12 will not require to clear any test. They will be automatically allowed to sit for the board exams" 

In conclusion, the viral claim is false that CM Mamata Banerjee has announced that ‘no board exams’ will be held for the students of Class 10 and 12 of the Bengal state board and the students will be automatically promoted due to the coronavirus pandemic situation. We found that Mamata Banerjee initially made a wrong statement but she immediately clarified and said that students will not have to appear for the pre-boards and will be directly allowed to sit for the board exam.