Maharashtra| Attention students! State board withdraws 10 minutes extra time for exams; read details here

Pune: Considering the paper leak cases, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education has withdrawn the 10 minutes extra time given to the students.

The children were given 10 minutes extra time before the examination to read through the paper during Covid-19 pandemic.

Incidents of paper leaks

However, there were several incidents wherein the papers were leaked and went viral on the social media. In a press statement released on Friday, State Board secretary Anuradha Oak said, “the question paper was distributed among the students of standard 12^th and 10^th 10 minutes in advance, but we came to know about the leaked papers. State board exam is a crucial step in the lives of the students. Along with the parents and society, everyone keeps a close tab on the incidents that take place during the examination,” Oak said adding that when the incidents like paper leak or copy take place, it maligns the image of the board too.

Offline mode classes and post-pandemic era

Similarly, now the schools are offline and students must have got back their practice of writing. During the pandemic the students had lost their ability to write and thus were given extra time. 

Thus, from this year's (2023) examinations we have decided that no extra time will be provided”, she informed.

Examinations to take place in two shifts 

Students who have their exam scheduled in the morning (11 am) must reach the examination centre at 10.30 am and those who have paper at 3 pm must reach the centre by 2.30 pm.

Students have been informed about it on their hall tickets. The supervisor/examiner will collect the answer-sheets the way he/she has distributed the question papers,” added Oak.

Steps taken for copy free examination

To conduct the examination in a free environment, a high-level meeting between the board officials, state education secretary, education commissioners and police officials took place in Mumbai. During the meeting it was decided that besides flying squads appointed by the district education officials, flying squads and sitting squads by district collector, police commissioner/superintendent, CEO too will be appointed. 

Likewise, the runner who takes the question paper to the examination centre and brings back the answer sheets too will be tracked by using the GPS,” said Oak.