The state higher secondary council will set up isolation facilities in each of the 6,800 centres where the school-leaving exams will be held in-person in April.
“Exams will be held offline for the theory papers from April 2 to 20. All the centres will have isolation facilities. Since classes in the secondary and upper primary sections will not be held during the HS exams, the vacant rooms will be turned into isolation facilities,” said Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya, president of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education.
The candidates’ body temperature will be checked with thermal guns at entry.
If any candidate is found to be having above normal temperature (more than 37.5°C or 99.4°F) or presenting any other Covid symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, he or she will have to write the paper in an isolation room, a council official said.
A detailed guideline on isolation facilities and other safety protocols will be announced later.
“The students of classes IX to XII have been administered Covaxin since earlier this month. So, those who will write the HS exams are going to be fully vaccinated by February. But even the vaccinated can display Covid symptoms. So, isolation facilities are being set up at the exam venues,” the official said.
The invigilators who will be on duty in isolation rooms will wear gloves and double-layered masks.
At the state eligibility test (SET) held on January 9, the college service commission had set up isolation facilities at each of the 189 centres. There were also doctors on call.
A council official said they had to make an assessment to find out whether the doctor-on-call service would be feasible at all the HS exam venues.
“The HS exams will be held at many more centres than the SET. HS 2020 was held at 2,300 venues. This time we have almost tripled the number so that the physical distancing norm can be adhered to,” said an official of the HS council.
“Dedicated staff will be deployed to take care of the candidates who will write the papers in isolation.”
The answer scripts of such candidates will be separately packed and dispatched.
The HS council had in early November announced that the students would write their papers on their respective campuses, a first in the history of the school-leaving exams.
This has been done to ensure examinees do not travel much amid the pandemic.
Campuses have been shut since January 3 following a spike in Covid cases.