HS 2020: Council tightens security against use of unfair means

Kolkata: The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) is taking stringent measures to check unfair means adopted by the examinees during the Higher Secondary examination that starts from Friday.

Apart from cancelling the examination and the registration of the candidates found adopting such practices, the WBCHSE may also cancel the affiliation of the schools which will be unable to check mass copying.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: "The Higher Secondary Examination is starting from Friday. We need to be alert so that there is no inconvenience to the examinees. There should be no road blocks. We seek cooperation from everybody."

"We have received complaints that in some schools students have a field day in copying due to the former's lackadaisical attitude. We have provided adequate infrastructure to all schools to prevent examinees from adopting unfair means. If we find lacunae on the part of any school in this regard, we will reconsider whether we will continue to affiliate these schools," said Mahua Das, president of WBCHSE.

7.90 lakh candidates are slated to appear for the examinations that will continue till March 27 and will be held in 734 examination centres and 2,145 venues across the state. 52,000 more girls will be appearing for the examination in comparison to boys this year.

"For the first time this year, we will have one Chief Invigilator who will be in charge of the examination hall. He will distribute question papers only after ensuring that no one is having mobile phones in his/her possession. He may use metal detectors to frisk an examinee without body contact to ensure that he/she is not having mobile phone or any similar electronic device," Das said.

There will be three invigilators for each venue and one of them will be deployed as Chief Invigilator, with another one as Special Mobile Invigilator.

The HS Council has provided 300-odd schools with metal detectors that have been identified as sensitive venues. These venues are located mainly in Malda, Birbhum, Howrah, North 24-Parganas and North Dinajpur.

"We have not recommended metal detectors. But some schools have requisitioned us for such devices to conduct the examination in smooth manner. We have provided them with the infrastructure," a senior WBCHSE official said.

The state administration will also stop internet services in some pockets of districts like Malda and North 24-Parganas for one or two hours during the examination. No one will be allowed to enter an examination venue apart from Venue Supervisor, Centre in-Charge and Centre Secretary.

For the first time, WBCHSE will print question papers in Alchiki language this year, apart from Hindi, English and Bengali.

There will be computer generated barcodes for tracking the packets of question papers. The Council has also strengthened its manual tracking system. There will be two council nominees in each main venue and one such nominee in each venue.