West Bengal Class 12 Board Exam 2024: 32 Students Disqualified Over Mobile Phone Violations

A total of 32 students have been disqualified so far in the ongoing Class 12 Board examination in West Bengal, an official said on Wednesday. Most of these students were disqualified after being caught entering the exam centre with mobile phones, in violation of rules, PTI reported.

In a statement, President of West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education Chiranjib Bhattacharya said that four candidates were caught using mobile phones during the Class 12 Board examination in the state on Wednesday.

“With this, the total number of students who were caught using mobile phones in the examination hall has reached 32,” Bhattacharya said. He also added that the Board has cancelled the candidature for these students for the entire examination.

Out of the four students caught using smartphones on Wednesday, two were appearing for the Mathematics paper, while the other two were slated to appear for the history exam.

“The steps were adopted to prevent any malpractices, including taking images of the question papers and circulating those on social media… We have zero tolerance for such acts. The ones disqualified cannot sit for exams for one year,” Bhattacharya told the news agency.

Further, Bhattacharya informed that the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education for the first time this year has introduced a unique serial number for each question paper to address concerns about test paper leaks.

Another official of the council informed that recently a person was taken into custody from the Nadia district after promising several candidates to “share question papers in exchange for money”.

The West Bengal HS exams started on February 16, while the last paper will be held on Thursday, February 29. This year, a total of 7,89,867 students are appearing for the Class 12 board examination in West Bengal.

Earlier, the Board announced the revised timings for the exams and scheduled them from 9:45 AM to 1:00 PM (3 hours and 15 minutes). However, for the Vocational subjects including Visual Art, Music and Health and Physical Education, the exams were held between 9:45 AM and 11:45 AM (2 hours).