Girls to outnumber boys at Madhyamik exam this year
Senior education dept official claims Kanyashree scheme has brought more girls to school
Kolkata: The number of female candidates appearing for the Madhyamik Examination 2019 that kicks off from Tuesday has seen a significant rise this year despite a drop in total number of candidates who are appearing for the examination.
A total of 60,3311 girls have been enrolled for the examination which is 13.3 percent more than the number of male candidates which stands at 46,1669.
"The number of candidates who are slated to appear for the examination this year stands at 10,64,980 which is a little lesser than 10,83,388 candidates who had appeared last year. But the number of girls appearing for the examination is significantly more in comparison to boys," said Kalyanmoy Ganguly, president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), at a press conference on Monday.
A senior official of the state Education department said the rise in the number of female candidates is the result of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's project Kanyashree that has pushed up the enrollment of girls and at the same time contributed in curbing early marriages.
The maximum number of candidates which stands at 98,702 is from North 24 Parganas while the minimum number is from Kalimpong 3619. The examination that begins from Tuesday will continue till February 22.
The number of head-examiners and examiners has also seen a rise in comparison to last year. The WBBSE has taken a series of security measures to check malpractices and cheating in the examination centres.
"Teachers, who have been assigned the duty of invigilators, will have to hand over their mobile phone 30 minutes before the start of examination to the venue-in-charge who will be a government official," Ganguly said reiterating that strong action will be taken against the teachers or the exam centres who fail to comply with the new rule. Students are already barred from carrying cell-phones inside the examination halls.
The board president made it clear that only centre officer-in -charge, centre secretary, venue supervisor, venue in-charge and additional venue supervisor would be allowed to use cell phones in the exam centres. The sealed packets of question papers will be opened in the examination centre by the invigilator and distributed immediately among the students. The decision comes in the wake of charges of opening the seal of question papers much before the scheduled time by the headmaster of Maynaguri Subhasnagar High School, Haridayal Roy, during last year's examination. He had allegedly made question papers of more than one subject available to the topper of the school. Roy has been suspended and disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against him.
