The Board of Secondary Education (BSE) that conducts the Matriculation examinations is determined to completely curb the menace of malpractice adopted by students. The examination began on Tuesday.
“Putting foolproof measures in place, we have prevented mass copying to a great extent. However, the stray cases of malpractice reported in some centres are nevertheless checked by our alert multiple squads deployed in all the examination centres,” said BSE Examination Controller NR Mohanty.
On the first day of the examination, 94 students were booked for malpractice. This number is decreasing every year, a BSE official said, informing that at least 300 students had been booked for malpractice on the first day of the 2015 examination, which had come down to 150 in 2016.
Apart from the invigilators at a centre, the BSE is deploying a three-tier squad to prevent students from adopting unfair means.
Over six lakh students are appearing at this year’s examination in over 3,000 centres spread across the State. The examination will continue up to March 13.
This year, a record number of 74 Bonda tribe students, including 41 girls, are appearing at the examination. These students from isolated pockets of Malkangiri district are appearing at the examination in the Khairaput centre in the district.
The first day of the examination also saw 12 tribal students of Kalahandi district refused entry into an examination centre as they had not obtained admit cards. Although the students claimed that they had filled up their examination forms paying the requisite dues, their teachers denied it.