Students can’t enter hall once exam begins: State

Mumbai: Students appearing for their state board examinations in February and March will not be allowed to enter the examination hall after writing time begins at 11 am. The writing time begins half-an-hour after the reporting time at 10.30 am. Until last year, students were allowed to enter the hall till 11.30 am, which is 30 minutes after commencement of the writing time.

State education minister Vinod Tawde, while talking to this newspaper, said that the move was to curb paper leaks which usually occured between 10.30 am and 11.30 am, when examinations began at 11am.

“Now, all students are informed to reach half-an-hour before the writing time. This half-an-hour is the reporting time for them and they have to be there by then in order to write the exam,” said Mr Tawde. 

State education ministry officials said that unsealing of question papers was done by supervisors at the examination hall at the writing time. “Social media is the main cause of paper leak. Last year, an image of the question paper was clicked and circulated on WhatsApp by the person who was in charge of issuing the paper at the classroom level. However, that won’t happen this time as the unsealing, segregation and distribution of papers will be done in front of the students and no mobile phones will be allowed in the classrooms for both teachers and students,” said a senior official of the state education ministry.

When asked whether students who were late due to valid reasons such as late trains or traffic congestion would be allowed to enter the examination hall, he said, “Strictly no! We did this till last year and ended up having question paper leaks. This time, if the student wants to give the exam, he has to be present at the reporting time and if not, the student won’t be allowed to write the exam.”