West Bengal board Class 10 exams begin, more than 11 lakh registered

For the second year in a row, girls in West Bengal outnumbered boys in Class 10 board exams that began on Monday. The examination, popularly known as Madhyamik, is conducted by West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE).

A total number of 11,02,921 examinees are appearing for the exams this year, as against 10,71,846 last year. As many of 6,21,366, or 56%, are girls. The number of boys stood at 4,81,555.

“Altogether there are 2,819 examination centres this year throughout the state,” said WBBSE administrator Kalyanmoy Ganguly.

For the first time this year, examinees will be able to answer in Santhali (Olchiki) script. According to Ganguly, a total of 832 students will be writing the examination in the script.

Following complaints of examination papers being opened before time or mass-cheating in exam halls, the authorities announced certain restrictions this year. All the sealed packets of question papers will contain microchips that will send signals to the central server of the board if these are opened more than five minutes from the beginning of the examination.

Restrictions have also been imposed on examinees in entering the exam halls will mobile phones, digital watches and calculators.

Based on past records of cheating incident, the state government has also identified certain exam centres as ‘sensitive’. In such centres, there will be three observers in each examination room and the entire process of invigilation will be videographed.

The exams will continue till March 21.