The efforts of the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education to conduct malpractice-free exams seem to have had a positive effect as the first paper of this year’s higher secondary exams passed off without any controversy.
The exams for Special Hindi paper was conducted in 92 centers across the city from 9 in the morning till 12 amidst tight security. As per the directives from the board authorities section 144 was imposed in and around the centers and a 100 meter radius area around the exam centers was off limit to the public.
Only those students who reached the centre by 8.45 am were allowed to give the exams, as announced earlier. In some centres the school heads, who are the chief exam conductors checked some students but according to reports no malpractices were found.
Elsewhere, a few students were asked to remove their shoes and socks to check for concealed materials but there also everything was found to be in order. In the case of girl students, female staffers were deputed to conduct the checking and body frisking. To ensure a fair examination no students, invigilators or any other staffs were permitted to carry mobile phones and other electronic gadgets inside the examination hall.
In some centres, cloakrooms were formed to keep the mobile phones of the staff. Sometime towards 11 O’clock a rumour spread that the objective type question papers were leaked but the authorities assured that no paper was leaked. There were reports of the list of roll numbers of the students missing in some centers. When asked, the authorities said that the lists were torn in a couple of places due to crowding and duplicate lists were pasted immediately.
Early in the morning students were seen thronging the temples and other religious places to seek divine assistance during their exams. Talking to the media persons, RN Nikhara, the District Education Officer said that the first exam of the 12th, the class was conducted peacefully amidst tight security.