BSEB Board Exam 2019: Board prepares 10 set questions to prevent leaks, says Anand Kishore
Faryal Rumi | TNN | Feb 5, 2019, 18:53 IST
Anand KishorePATNA: With the Matriculation and Intermediate examinations scheduled to begin from February 6 and 21, respectively, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Anand Kishor talked to
TOI about changes in the pattern of exams.
Excerpts:
What has been your focus in preparing the Board and school in conducting the class X and XII exams?
There should be no compromise in fairness and sanctity of conducting the exams. For this many steps have been taken like increasing the number of sets of questions. This year, the Board has prepared 10 sets of questions and each set is different from the other. So, there is no chance that the question paper would become viral. Even if it’s get viral, student will not know which set he/she would get in exam. The teachers at the exam hall are not allowed to take the cell phone during the exam.
What all new steps have been taken by the Board this year to make the exams more student-friendly?
This year, the board introduced the bar coded answer copies with the student’s details which will be pre-printed on first page. Earlier, students used to fill around 27 columns including filling the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) in answer copies and they made several mistakes which led to pending of their results. Now they have to fill only three columns – medium of examination, candidate’s signature and question set number. This step will save the student’s time.
Apart from that, the Bihar board is soon going to launch ‘Exam Centre Locator’ mobile application, to help the examinees to locate the exam centres across the state. It is still under construction but in advanced stage.
Steps Board proposes to conduct cheating-free and fair exams?
Class X and XII examinees strictly asked not to wear socks and shoes. The appearing candidates will be frisked twice before entering the examination hall. The declaration will be taken from the teachers: ‘I have checked the students under my jurisdiction and I have found that nothing objectionable was recovered from students’ and if a student is caught with unfair means during the exam after signing the declaration he/ she should also be suspended. The examiners will be divided as per the strength of students.
As chairman of BSEB, you are going to conduct the exams for third consecutive year. What’s your suggestion to appearing students?
Now, students are well-versed with the exam pattern, so I want to tell them that there is no shortcut to success. They should desist themselves from rumour mongers and especially from people who claim to have the answers of questions that is going to come in exams. Students should immediately inform the Board or local police stations about such people.
It has been seen that students of Bihar board are not able to score more than 85% which didn’t let them to get admission in prominent universities in India. What you are going to do in this regard?
This time, the Board has reduced the higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) questions in objectives-type and increased the number of questions asked in long-type questions. There would be around 27 subjective questions including three and five marks questions. Students will be free to attempt any 15 questions of their choice. We have also organised a workshop-cum-training programme for evaluators and they have been asked to award partial and step-wise marks in answer copies of students.
To prevent any fiasco like selling of answer sheets outside exam centres and selling of evaluated answer copies from strong room, what are the steps you are going to take?
The Board is going to increase the number of security personnel in and around the exam centres. The district magistrates and SPs have been asked to ensure that the school principals would not sell the answer copies which would be put in evaluation centres
Earlier you had said that you want to see Bihar Board among the top state board, what are you planning to improve its standard?
We are planning to make all the functioning of the Board as paperless. The Board has also set up the nine regional centres- Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Purnia, Chappra, Munger and Saharsa. The permanent offices of regional centres would be ready by this year. It would be used for several purposes, as distributing required documents, evaluation centres, exam centres and bar coding centres.
Excerpts:
What has been your focus in preparing the Board and school in conducting the class X and XII exams?
There should be no compromise in fairness and sanctity of conducting the exams. For this many steps have been taken like increasing the number of sets of questions. This year, the Board has prepared 10 sets of questions and each set is different from the other. So, there is no chance that the question paper would become viral. Even if it’s get viral, student will not know which set he/she would get in exam. The teachers at the exam hall are not allowed to take the cell phone during the exam.
What all new steps have been taken by the Board this year to make the exams more student-friendly?
This year, the board introduced the bar coded answer copies with the student’s details which will be pre-printed on first page. Earlier, students used to fill around 27 columns including filling the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) in answer copies and they made several mistakes which led to pending of their results. Now they have to fill only three columns – medium of examination, candidate’s signature and question set number. This step will save the student’s time.
Apart from that, the Bihar board is soon going to launch ‘Exam Centre Locator’ mobile application, to help the examinees to locate the exam centres across the state. It is still under construction but in advanced stage.
Steps Board proposes to conduct cheating-free and fair exams?
Class X and XII examinees strictly asked not to wear socks and shoes. The appearing candidates will be frisked twice before entering the examination hall. The declaration will be taken from the teachers: ‘I have checked the students under my jurisdiction and I have found that nothing objectionable was recovered from students’ and if a student is caught with unfair means during the exam after signing the declaration he/ she should also be suspended. The examiners will be divided as per the strength of students.
As chairman of BSEB, you are going to conduct the exams for third consecutive year. What’s your suggestion to appearing students?
Now, students are well-versed with the exam pattern, so I want to tell them that there is no shortcut to success. They should desist themselves from rumour mongers and especially from people who claim to have the answers of questions that is going to come in exams. Students should immediately inform the Board or local police stations about such people.
It has been seen that students of Bihar board are not able to score more than 85% which didn’t let them to get admission in prominent universities in India. What you are going to do in this regard?
This time, the Board has reduced the higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) questions in objectives-type and increased the number of questions asked in long-type questions. There would be around 27 subjective questions including three and five marks questions. Students will be free to attempt any 15 questions of their choice. We have also organised a workshop-cum-training programme for evaluators and they have been asked to award partial and step-wise marks in answer copies of students.
To prevent any fiasco like selling of answer sheets outside exam centres and selling of evaluated answer copies from strong room, what are the steps you are going to take?
The Board is going to increase the number of security personnel in and around the exam centres. The district magistrates and SPs have been asked to ensure that the school principals would not sell the answer copies which would be put in evaluation centres
Earlier you had said that you want to see Bihar Board among the top state board, what are you planning to improve its standard?
We are planning to make all the functioning of the Board as paperless. The Board has also set up the nine regional centres- Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Purnia, Chappra, Munger and Saharsa. The permanent offices of regional centres would be ready by this year. It would be used for several purposes, as distributing required documents, evaluation centres, exam centres and bar coding centres.
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