Goof-ups trouble students on Day 1 of HSC exam

The first day of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam on Tuesday was marred by several administrative glitches.

The first day of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam on Tuesday was marred by several administrative glitches.

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Just an hour before the English paper began at 11am, about 300 students, who were supposed to write the exam at the Vidya Niketan Junior College in Ghatkopar, were told that their exam centre had changed. They were asked to rush to the Municipality School of Pantnagar in Ghatkopar to attend the exam.

“I had visited the center last week to ensure that I had no problem locating it on the day of the exam. On Tuesday, a watchman at Vidya Niketan told us that the centre had been changed,” said Tanvi Bhadra, 17, one of the students.

S Dekhane, secretary, Maha-rashtra State Board of Secon-dary and Higher Secondary Education, said, “The number of students could have exceeded the centre’s capacity and so some of them could have been shifted to a sub-centre. The sub-centre is usually near the main centre.”

At the New Model College in Dombivili, students were asked mid-exam to stop writing with a black pen. “A supervisor announced that we could not use a black pen. I could barely finish my paper,” said a student, who did not wish to be named.

Board officials, however, said students were allowed to write in black ink and they were looking into the students’ complaints.