Second day of HSC in Mumbai: Reaching Kandivli centre real test for students

The road in front of TR Narawane School in Kandivli has been dug up and this is making it difficult for students to reach the centre; second language papers were a breeze

The Higher Secondary Certificate exams are on and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has dug up roads outside TR Narawane School in Kandivli, making it difficult for examinees and teachers to reach the hall in time.

The repair work being carried out in front of the Kandivli school. (Pramod Thakur/HT)

The school — which serves both as an exam hall and custody centre (a place where question papers an answer sheets are stored) — has complained to the civic body and asked them to put off the work until the exams conclude.

The school in Kandivli (west) is a main centre for the HSC exams with more than 700 students taking the tests there.

What’s more is that it supplies question papers to 13 other centres in the region, which means there are 13 custody vans parked outside the centre before and after an exam.

Centre authorities complained that the work began just two days before the HSC exams started. With hundreds of students pouring into the centre in the morning, there is a heavy traffic congestion in the area. “Students are finding it difficult to reach the centre as there is no space to walk on the road,” said Rajinder Kaur, education officer, western zone. “Unki halat kharab ho jaati hai (they are in a bad state when they reach the centre)

One of the students at the centre is disabled and needs to move on a wheelchair. But with the traffic snarl and construction debris around, it becomes difficult for him to maneuver it to the centre.

Education officials said that the BMC didn’t check with them before starting the work. “Contractor details have not been put up at the site, so we didn’t even know who to contact,” said Kaur.

Sahebrao Gaikwad, ward officer, R south, said, “I will look into the case and sort it out.”

Meanwhile, after a tumultuous beginning on Tuesday, the HSC exams carried off without a hitch on day-two. Students breezed through the second language Hindi (04), German (14) and Persian (37) papers on Wednesday.

Students were surprised with the short and easy Hindi paper, as language papers usually tend to be lengthy. “This is the first time that I have finished the Hindi paper on time. In fact, I was done 10 minutes early,” said Tuba Jagirdar, a science student from Bhavan’s College, Andheri.

Another student said that the paper’s difficulty levels were lower when compared with previous years. “The paper was easy enough, all the questions were from the syllabus,” said Chelsea Gomes, another HSC student.

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