Pune: As many as 14,91,306 students will be appearing for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC), Std XII, board examination set to begin on Thursday, February 21. The examination will continue till March 20.
The option of transgender was introduced for the first time in the examination forms this year, at least over a 100 registrations may have been made under that category.
However, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) Chairperson Shakuntala Kale said the number has to be reverified during admit card correction process and will be confirmed at the time of results. This year, a total of 6,024 students with disability have applied for the HSC examination.
In a special case, a girl from Sophia Junior College in Mumbai, Nishka Naresh Hosangady will be giving the examination on her iPad, since she cannot write due to a disability, and has practised over the iPad.
Kale said the iPad will be thoroughly inspected before the examination and the answers typed by her will be written down in an answer sheet by her writer. This year, 252 flying squads have been deployed to visit the examination centres. However, this year, the squads will visit the sensitive centres on intimation by the divisional boards.
Also, the smooth conduct of examination was doubtful this year as the junior college teachers had announced a non-cooperation protest.
However, luckily, after a positive discussion with the State Education Minister, and immediate acceptance of some of their demands, the protest was called off on the eve of HSC board examination.
While the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has introduced geotagging and centre locator app to curb malpractices like copying and paper leaks and help students find their centre easily, Kale said it was not feasible to do so for the State board examination. “While most of the CBSE schools are in urban areas, we have many schools in semi-urban and rural areas. The State Board has its centres even in remote areas. It is not yet possible to equip all these centres with latest technology at the moment. However, we have began to think in that direction.”
What is new this year regarding HSC exams
In order to avoid any kind of paper leak through mobile phones, this year even the teachers will not be allowed to take their phones to the examination centres. The phones will have to be submitted to the Centre Head before the exam begins.
For carrying out minor changes in the admit cards, earlier the students had to visit the divisional board office. However, this time the principals have been empowered to make minor changes like name of date of birth, or issue duplicate admit cards to the students.
DOS AND DON’TS
