Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The MP Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) Class 12 examinations began at 104 centres in the city on Thursday. On the first day, the students wrote their English papers from 10 am to 1 pm
In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board had asked all the examinees to reach their centres at 8.30 am. They were asked to wear masks and carry a small bottle of sanitiser with them.
Almost all the students complied with the instructions. In fact, some of them reached the centres as early as 7 am. Vandana Pradhan, an invigilator at the Model Higher Secondary School, TT Nagar said that, “99% of the students were wearing masks and had brought sanitiser with them. We provided masks to the few who were not.”
“Some of the students had even brought their Aadhar cards, IDs and some were even carrying their vaccination certificates,” Pradhan said. None of these documents were required.
An isolation room was earmarked at all centres for examinees suffering from cough, cold or fever. All of them were subjected to thermal screening.
Many students complained that with the schools closed for almost two years, their writing speed had been affected and so they found it difficult to complete the paper in the given time.
Rasheeda Zafar from Royal Market said that she did not know why the Board decided to hold the examinations offline. “When teaching was online, the exams should also have been offline,” she said.
Shailendra Kure from Shahjahanabad found the paper ‘simple’. He said that he was not allowed to carry his bag inside the centre and was forced to keep it at a nearby shop. Zara said that the papers opted by her have been wrongly printed in her admit card. “I have opted for Computer and Information Practices but my admit card mentions Hindi and Economics,” she said.
C. Shiva from Awadhpuri found the paper simple and good. Sultana Khan said that she was worried about catching the infection but was relieved to find that proper social distancing was maintained in the examination halls.
Four students mistakenly reached the Model School TT Nagar instead of their centre at Model School, Airport Road, Phanda. When the District Education Officer (DEO) Nitin Saxena came to know of it, he got them dropped to their correct centre in his official vehicle.
MPBSE Secretary Shrikant Bhanot inspected the centres at Government Mahatma Gandhi HSS, BHEL and Vivekananda Vidyapeeth, Piplani
The DEO told Free Press that the examination was conducted smoothly in the district. “There are no reports of any untoward incident from anywhere,” he said. On the report that the examinees were asked to take off their footwear at the centre at Rashidia School in the Old City, Saxena said that it was done to prevent copying.
