Updated: February 18, 2020 8:14:01 am
According to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), which conducts the exams, more than 56 per cent of the total students appearing this year are girls – the highest in recent times. (Express photo by Jaipal Singh/Representational)
About 10.15 lakh students will appear for the Madhyamik (Secondary) examinations starting from Tuesday. The Madhyamik examinations, which will continue till February 27, will be held in 2,839 centres.
According to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), which conducts the exams, more than 56 per cent of the total students appearing this year are girls – the highest in recent times.
WBBSE president Kalyanmoy Ganguly said at a press meeting on Sunday: “As many as 10,15,888 candidates will appear for the Madhyamik examinations this year, and of them, 5,76,009 are girls, which is 56.70 per cent. The number of female students taking the examination has been on the rise for the past few years. This year’s 56.70 per cent is the highest in recent times.” Last year, as many as 10,50,397 student had written the exam across 2835 centres.
Meanwhile, to prevent leak of question papers during examination hours, the authorities are contemplating suspending internet services in areas around some schools for a few hours.
“There are plans to suspend internet services in areas around some schools, but nothing has been finalised yet. The modalities will be decided by the local authorities. However, if any student is found carrying feature or smart phones to examination centres, his examination will be cancelled. Our disciplinary committee has taken such actions before and will not hesitate to do the same this year as well,” added Ganguly.
Last year, purported images of Bengali, English, Mathematics and Life Science question papers were were available on WhatsApp shortly after the exams started. However, the WBBSE had said those question papers did not match with the original ones.
“Teachers will not be allowed to take smart watches inside the examination centres from this year. In fact, from smart watches to mobile phones, no electronic gadget will be allowed inside the centres either by teachers or students,” said Ganguly.
While question papers will be dispatched to examination centres by 10.39 am this year, the examinations will start at 11.50 am.
Vehicles to be checked for speed at every 20 km: Minister
To prevent road accidents during Madhyamik (Secondary) examination, all vehicles will be checked for speed at every 20 kilometres through ‘laser guns’.
The decision was announced by state Transport Minister Shuvendu Adhikary on Sunday at the Legislative Assembly. He was replying to Speaker Biman Banerjee’s question.
Shuvendu Adhikari said, “We have already planned to control vehicles’ speed during examination. All over the state, ‘laser guns’ will be used to monitor speed at every 20 kilometers… We have already directed all district magistrates to monitor the speed of the vehicles. And further, all government and private buses have been asked to pick up students, if they are standing at bus stops, drop them to the destination.”
The move came after 14 schoolchildren were injured on Friday after a pool car they were travelling in rolled into a canal in Hooghly district. The investigation had revealed the speed limit device was illegally removed from the car.
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