Error in online timetable costs HSC students dearly

At least five students from Mumbai missed their textiles paper on Saturday as the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam timetable uploaded on the official state board website has not been updated.

At least five students from Mumbai missed their textiles paper on Saturday as the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam timetable uploaded on the official state board website has not been updated.

The students arrived at their centres to appear for the exam at 3pm only to find that it was already held at 11am, a change that did not reflect in the online timetable. The home science students of MP Shah Junior College, Matunga, were going by the timetable on the website: mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in.

“I was told the exam had already been held in the morning. It felt like a bad dream,” said one of the students. “I thought maybe I had not seen the online timetable correctly, but I rechecked and found that the paper was scheduled for the afternoon,” she added.

The students approached to the divisional board office of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Vashi, to complain about the error. But the officials said that there was nothing that they could do about it.

“The timetable uploaded online is not the final one. It was uploaded in July but many changes have been made to it after that,” said Gangadhar Mhamane, chairperson of the board. “There is even a footnote on the online timetable warning students not to consider it as the final timetable but to check with their college before appearing for the exam.”

Mhamane added that hard copies of the timetables distributed to colleges do not contain these errors. “The students should have checked once with their college and not relied on the online timetable alone,” she said.