HSC Exam: Printing of new question papers begins

CUTTACK: The process of annual HSC re-examination was put on fast track with printing of the new set of question papers commencing on Friday. The Board of Secondary Education is expected to announce the new schedule of the examinations as soon as the printed question papers are received. It will have to publish the new dates at least 10 days before the commencement of the re-examination through newspaper advertisements, as per the instructions of the School and Mass Education Department.According to BSE officials, the printing will take more than a week considering the huge volume of over 5 lakh copies and in seven subjects. They are likely to be available with the Board in the first week of April. “We had seven alternative question sets ready with us to meet with eventualities like this. But they, as per practice, have been in manuscript form.The Examination Committee finalised the  set for use in the re-examination and after proof reading have been rushed to the designated presses for printing”, secretary BSE NR Mohapatra said.The Board, in a significant move, directed at expediting the evaluation process and ensuring declaration of results in normal time, has decided to do away with the procedure of deposition of answer sheets in Receiving Centres at the zonal level. The answer sheets of the students are first kept in the Receiving Centres in respeective zones, where they are decoded and sent to the evaluation centres for marking. The process consumes about a fortnight.The answer sheets would now be directly sent to the evaluation centres. This will enable saving of valuable time and ensure speedy declaration of results around the usual time of the last week of June. Stringent measures would be taken for safeguarding the answer sheets and ensuring clean and error-free evaluation, officials said.Stung by the unprecedented incident of theft, the BSE has requested the police and the respective district administration to provide police security at the Centres where question papers are stored. The centres would be evaluated afresh and those vulnerable will be kept out with other institutions storing the papers on their behalf.Secretary, School and Mass Education Department, Rajesh Verma has also asked the Board to adopt measures as necessary to prevent such incidents like theft in future.