Aiming to curb irregularities during the ongoing board exams for Classes 10 and 12, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced new measures, including cancelling the registration of schools if their staff were found complicit either in allowing copying or leaking papers. School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad made an announcement to this effect in the state council.
“Some new measures have been devised to prevent irregularities in the state board’s Standards 10 and 12 examinations,’’ said Gaikwad. “I would like to reiterate that there has been no paper leak. The paper was found in the mobiles of latecomer students after it had been distributed in class. The mischief seems to have happened in the 10 minutes given for reading the paper. Strict action is being taken,” she said.
The department will take strong action if school principals, teachers, co-teachers and other employees are found involved in allowing copying, Gaikwad warned. The concerned schools will lose their registration number and the board’s consent to function, she said.
To avoid paper leaks through social media, especially WhatsApp, the department and the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education has banned the possession and the use of mobile phones by students, teachers, supervisors and other employees during examination hours.
Further, students will be prohibited from entering the examination centre after 10.30am during the morning session and after 3pm. In case students are late because of unavoidable circumstances, then they will be allowed to appear for the exams after due permission from the regional board, so that they do not lose an academic year.
It will be binding on students to be present at the assigned classroom 10 minutes before the distribution of papers. For the morning session, the students should be present by 10.20am and for the afternoon session, by 2.50pm. They are expected to be present at the centres an hour before the exam is scheduled to begin.
In order to avoid incidents of paper leaks and copying at the examination centres, the school education department had urged the Maharashtra home minister for the additional deployment of police force. Accordingly, the home department has instructed the state director general of police and the Mumbai police commissioner.
The department has instructed the divisional commissioners and district collectors to deploy the maximum number of vigilance squads at examination centres and sub-centres and take the necessary action to curb irregularities.
Teacher and Invigilator Tejashree J. said, “As it was the first day of the exam for English medium students, we had asked all of them to reach an hour before the exam began to ensure the proceedings went off smoothly.”
Further, she added, “At our school, one of the students was a bit late, and the class teacher was concerned because already that student was lagging academically and would have missed the exam had she been late, but luckily she reached before the first slot and was able to appear for the exam.”
Despite the difficulties posed by online learning and offline exams, Class 10 students were satisfied after appearing for their first exam. In Mumbai, around 3,73, 740 students are appearing for the exam. Gaurav Mishra, a student of Kidland English School, said, “I was nervous before the exam, but it was so easy, and I even attempted the extra questions. I was able to finish and check my paper within the allotted time. My other exams will certainly go the same way.”
