Odisha Matric exams on Feb 22; dept tightens belt

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 30:

With state matriculation examination beginning from February 22, all arrangements are being made by Odisha Board of Secondary Education for making it smooth and trouble free.

Commissioner-cum-Secretary, School and Mass Education Department, Ranjana Chopra has yesterday sent letters to all district collectors, SPs, RDCs, District Education Officers (DEOs) with instructions for a smooth and problem free conduct of the examination.

The department is giving special importance to issues like the security of question papers, examination centres, nodal centres etc.

This year 6, 01,348 students will appear for class 10 exams, 2882 examination centres have been identified for this purpose. For this, 325 nodal centres have been identified for safe keep of the question papers and answer sheets.

The question papers will be sent to the nodal centres beginning from February 10 to 15. Since the question papers and answer sheets will reach early, the education department has given instructions to district collectors and SPs to tighten security arrangements. Therefore, these nodal centres will be kept under 24-hour police security till exam ends on March 4.

There is a huge crowd in front of the exam halls during the examinations. For crowd management and smooth running of the examinations, the block development officers (BDOs) and tehsildars should be given magistrate powers, Chopra has said in her letter.

Erring officers will be strictly punished under Odisha Control of Examination Act- 1988, she has warned and instructed the district collectors.

The evaluations will be done from March 11 to 22 at 67 centres. During this time, the centre will be provided with 24-hour police protection.

In all examination centres, a superintendent will be appointed, while a 24-hour control room will be set up in the DEO office. Secondary Education department, Secondary Education Council and all zonal offices will have round the clock control room for facilitating the examination.

Immediate action should be taken against any erring examination centre, assessment centre and nodal centre, the department secretary has instructed.