The state higher secondary council has “appealed” to venue supervisors to take all possible measures to complete the higher secondary examination “maintaining its security, sanctity and confidentiality” because the exam will not be held at home centres this year.
Last year, students wrote the school-leaving exams under the watch of teachers of their own schools (home centres), instead of away centres, and the council received allegations that teachers were lenient in several centres.
Council president Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya on Wednesday said they want the venue supervisors to “maintain sanctity and transparency in the conduct of the examination”.
The board in its advisory to the venue supervisors has written that the ensuing exam is important because it will be held on the full syllabus. Last year, the exam had been based on a truncated syllabus because of the pandemic.
“The ensuing higher secondary examination will be held in the centre-venue system. Examination in the home centre will not continue in 2023…..Venue supervisor has to undertake all the possible measures to complete the higher secondary examination maintaining its security, sanctity and confidentiality,” says the advisory.
“Venue supervisor is entrusted with the entire responsibility of conducting the examination properly”.
The HS exams start on March 14 and continue till March 27.
Students who will write the Class XII board exams this year did not write Madhyamik in 2021.
The guidelines to the venue supervisors also say that instead of two sections — Part-A and Part-B — the question papers this year will have only one section.
“Earlier, the question paper was split into two parts and the two sections were distributed separately. Separate answer sheets were given for each part,” said a council official.
“The venue supervisors have been told that this year the council has decided that only one answer sheet will be provided for each question paper and students will not be allowed to write answers on the question paper,” said the official.
A teacher said maintaining the sanctity of the exams was paramount. The council last year should have arranged for neutral teachers to keep a watch on the candidates while holding the exams at home centres, the teacher said.
Other boards that regularly conduct exams at home centres deploy teachers from other institutions on invigilation duty so fairness is maintained.
“Last year, the invigilation went for a toss. The schools that had never performed well showed stellar results,” said Swapan Mandal of the Bengal Teachers’ and Employees Association. “In many centres, teachers came under pressure from students they have known for years. It’s good that the council is keen to restore the sanctity of the exam system this year.”