Vikash Sharma

All preparations have almost reached final stages for the special matriculation examination which will be conducted in offline mode by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha between July 30 and August 5.

Satyabrat Sahu, Secretary School and Mass Education Department on Saturday said the State government and BSE have come up with special directives and guidelines for the conduct of the offline matriculation exam.

As per decision, all the examination centres will be sanitised a day before the start of the exam and after each sitting for strict compliance of Covid-19 protocols.

Each examination centre will have dedicated isolation rooms. There will be provision for thermal scanning, adequate hand sanitisers for examines and examiners as well.

Use of masks will be mandatory and no student will be allowed to appear the exam without masks.

“Covid test of all those who will be engaged in exam duty will be conducted 48 hours prior to the start of the exam.

All the Chief District Medical Officers (CDMO) will be requested for conducting Covid test of the staff,” said Sahu.

According to Sahu, there will be special squads at the district and block levels to supervise if all Covid-19 related protocols were strictly followed.

As per the School and Mass Education Department, the evaluation of answer sheets will begin from August 10 to August 15.

“All the Covid protocols will be applicable for the evaluation centres as well. After evaluation, we are hopeful to declare the results by August 22. The students who will clear the exam, can subsequently participate in the Plus II admission process,” Sahu added.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Odisha government had cancelled the matriculation examination this year due to Covid-19 pandemic situation. Later, the BSE came up with alternative evaluation method and the results were published on June 25.

As per previous announcement, the special matriculation offline examination is being conducted for the students who were not satisfied with their results published as per the alternative evaluation method.

As per BSE officials, a total of 15,155 students have applied for the Class 10 offline examinations. A maximum of 1315 students have registered for the offline matric examination from Ganjam district.

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