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HSC exam starts today, 14.5 lakh students to appear in state
This year, the extra 10 minutes will now be allotted at the end of the paper as opposed to the beginning
The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) board exams for Class 12 or Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) are beginning today throughout the state with all preparations in place. After two years, there are no longer any restrictions imposed by Covid-19 on the exams, and the board has not granted students who lost their writing practice in 2021 and 2022 an additional 30 minutes at the beginning of the exam.
This year, the extra 10 minutes will now be allotted at the end of the paper as opposed to the beginning.
A total of 14,57,293 students, of which 7,92,780 are boys and 6,64,441 are girls, will take the exams this year, as per the board.
With several changes this year, the state board is prepared to conduct the exams with the entire syllabus at 10,388 centres in the state.
As per the information given by the MSBSHE in a press conference held on Monday at its head office in Pune, 66,0780 candidates have registered in the science stream, 40,4761 in Arts and 34,5532 students in the Commerce stream. While for the vocational or ITI courses a total of 3,261 students have registered.
“In the ‘copy-free board exam’ campaign, we urged the public to give their suggestions for how to stop and keep an eye on students to make sure they aren’t cheating. We received a total of 238 recommendations for this effort, and one of them—which we have now implemented—was to inform all enrolled students of the consequences or punishment for cheating in board exams. In a similar way, one recommendation we received was to put CCTV cameras within the exam centre; however, this has been implemented in new centres, not the older ones,” said Sharad Gosawi, head of the state board.
The board has decided to put in place a new system in order to maintain a careful eye on the transfer of the question papers to each and every centre. “The custody of the question paper is given to the centre assistant custodian who will transport the question papers and he will have to turn on the GPS of his/her mobile during the transportation. He/she will have to record the entire journey in their own mobile phone, then while opening the question paper set at the centre again the entire process should be video recorded and we will be monitoring this process,” added Gosawi.
While the students need to reach half an hour before the scheduled exam time. For example, for the morning scheduled paper at 11 am student needs to report at the examination centre at 10.30 am.
Ankit Seth, a Class 12 student, said, “I am prepared for all the papers. We are happy that 10 minutes additional time is given in the end so that we can cross-check the answers.”
Shreya Joshi, from city-based school appearing for HSC exam, said, “After two years of Covid, the exams are happening without any restrictions. The board has given us additional 10 minutes which is a good move.”
Shreya’s mother Vaishali Joshi, a banker, said, “The board has decided to conduct the exam on the entire syllabus, which I believe is a good step. Students had to take extra effort but they will perform well in the exam.”
Helplines
To assist students and parents in overcoming exam stress and anxiety, the state board has designated counsellors in all divisions
Contact
7387400970/8308755241/9834951752/8421150528/9373546299
Pune division
020 25536781
7038752972
9423042627
