Pune: After burning the midnight lamp for over the year, 14,85,132 Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education will begin from Wednesday. The state board has directed the students to reach the examination centre an hour before the examination. The paper would begin at 11 am sharp.
Earlier, the board would allow the students to write the paper, even if they reach the centre half an hour after the paper begun (i.e 11.30 am), but making it compulsory, no student will be allowed to enter the examination hall after 10.30 am.
While this year, the rule for the students to enter the examination hall at 10:30 am is made stricter than ever, the students are advised to reach their centres well in advance so as to avoid any confusion regarding the main and sub-centres.
Although, the board has advised to reach the center well in advance, the students should check their examiniation center properly to avoid the confusion between main centre and sub-centre. It is advisable to check your centre a day prior to the examination", said board chairperson Shakuntala Kale.
Speaking about the issue, Kale said, “There are very few places where we have main centres and sub-centres, hence we have not mentioned the sub-centres on the hall tickets. However, if we find that students are getting confused due to this, we will certainly make necessary changes about this next year.”
'Fight against malpractices'
The Board has initiated several new policies to deal with the malpractices that take place during the board exams. “This year, to avoid the leakage of question paper on social media like last year, we have decided to pack the papers in sealed packs of 25, which will be opened in the classrooms by the supervisors, after taking the signatures from two students in the class. We have established a total of 252 flying squads in the city as a part of our fight against malpractices in the examination. The notorious centres that were identified last year most of them were shut down this year, apart from the ones where we could not find any alternative,” Kale said.
New things in Maharashtra State Board examination this year
- For the first time on experimental level, the admit cards of the students in Pune division (it includes Pune, Ahmednagar and Solapur) were given away online this year.
- The instructions on the admit cards are both in English as well as Marathi languages this year, unlike earlier when they were given only in English language.
- To prevent swapping of answer sheets, all the sheets including the supplements will be recognised with printed bar codes.
- For the first time, 158 students will be appearing for the seven subjects under National Skill Qualification Framework (NSFQ).
-14,85,132 - students appearing for HSC Examination in the state
-2,45,055 - students appearing for HSC Examination in Pune division
-6,50,898 - number of girls appearing for HSC Examination
-2,822 - number of exam centres in the state
