Matric exam kicks-off with no hiccups in new format

Cuttack/Bhubaneswar: Over 6 lakh students in the state are appearing the annual high school certificate (HSC) examination, conducted by Orissa Board of Secondary Education, today with new format of question booklet.

As per the latest report, no untoward incident related to the test was reported so far. The students were enthusiastic about facing the new format at various centres.

“I just visited some of the schools and met the candidates over the new question format. The students are enthusiastic and can easily grasp the instruction given in the booklet. The new reformation has been brought keeping a better future of students in view. I think they have accepted it”, Usha Padhi, School & Mass Education department secretary-cum-commissioner, said.

The central squads formed by the BSE have left for their centres, who have been asked to keep strict vigil on any type of unfair practice during the exam. The squads have been empowered to take action against the erring students and invigilators found involved in malpractice and can scrap the centres if gross violation of guidelines was found.

The BSE expressed satisfaction over the fair way examination as no untoward event related to question papers, OMR sheets and admit card was reported.

“Over 6 lakh students across the State today are appearing in the exams. No untoward events like shortage of question papers have been reported till now. The central squads have already left for their respective centres. The test is going on in a fair manner,” BSE president Dakhya Prasad Nanda said outside a centre.

As per the new format, the students were given 100 marks for a subject (objective and subjective 50 marks each). For the first time, the students are appearing in the examination using optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets which were introduced by the BSE for better evaluation.