Bhubaneswar: After the debacle in the HSC matriculation exam where the Odia, English and Hindi subject papers reportedly got viral in social media despite heavy arrangement by the authority, the state government has decided to intensify security for the annual Plus II exams beginning March 7 and not allow candidates to enter exam halls with wrist watches.
After the high-level meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat here Thursday, School and Mass Education secretary Pradipta Mahapatra said a decision was taken to not allow students to enter exam halls with wrist watches. “Modern wrist watches have in-built cameras with which students can easily take photographs of question papers and forward it to anybody, either through Bluetooth or through the Internet,” Mahapatra said.
“Keeping the modern smart watches in mind, we have asked students not to bring wrist watches to exam centres. Apart from this, there will be no use of any other electronic gadgets and cell phones, either by students or by teachers and other staff engaged in exam duty.”
He said the Council of Higher Secondary Education has completed necessary procedures before the commencement of examinations. Question papers will be kept in 202 examination hubs from where they will be sent to examination centres on the day of the examination under tight security provided by the local police. “Apart from this, policemen will be deployed at all examination centres,” he said.
He also said that CCTV cameras will be installed at all examination centres. “Out of a total of 1,091 centres, CCTV cameras have already been installed at 937 centres.”
A total of 3,69,000 students of Arts, Science, Commerce and Vocational Education will write the examinations, which will conclude March 30.
Meanwhile Odisha government Thursday maintained that the leaking of question papers online had in no way affected the annual High School Certificate exams.
“The leaking of questions papers neither had any effect on the exams, nor on the students,” School and Mass Education minister Badri Narayan Patra said adding, “The examinations are going on smoothly at all centres in Odisha.”
Justifying his contention, the minister asked how answers will reach candidates inside exam halls if the question papers go viral on social media.”
He, however, admitted to a fault in OMR sheets. “Yes. There are faults in the OMR sheets,” he said. “The Board of Secondary Education has informed me about this. Considering the matter, it has been decided that OMR answer sheets will not be evaluated online as the board has decided on offline evaluation.”