PATNA: Taking lessons from the past, the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has taken all precautionary measures to ensure fair conduct of 2021 Matric examinations which commenced on Wednesday.
Thorough frisking of all examinees at two levels – one at the entrance gate of the examination centre and another inside the examination hall – has minimised the chances of copying. No student is allowed to carry anything other than the admit card with him or her inside the examination hall. Cellphones and electronic gadgets have been completely banned at the examination centres.
BSEB chairman Anand Kishore said one invigilator has been assigned for 25 examinees and each invigilator has been asked to submit a declaration to the effect that he or she has done frisking of all the 25 examinees under him or her and no undesirable object was found from their possession. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC have been imposed around the examination centres and no crowd is allowed to be assembled within 200 metres of the centre.
A round-the-clock control room started functioning in the BSEB office at 6am on Tuesday and it will function till 6pm on February 24, the last day of examination. Any problem related to examination anywhere in the state would be tackled on war footing at the control room. For quick dissemination of information, a WhatsApp group in the name of ‘BSEB Exam 2021’ has been created linking all the district magistrates, district education officers and senior officials of BSEB, Kishore said.
On the first day of examination, as many as 82 candidates were rusticated for adopting unfair means and 15 candidates were caught for impersonation. The maximum number of rusticated students was from Bhojpur (21) and Munger (20). The maximum number of impersonating examinees was caught in Supaul and Madhepura.
High ratio of girl examinees this time: It is interesting to note that girls constitute almost half of the total strength of students who are appearing for Matric examinations in the state this year. Of 16.84 lakh candidates taking the examinations this year, 8.37 lakh are girls. It means that the girls’ participation in school education has increased considerably in recent years.
Magadh Mahila College principal Shashi Sharma said not only at secondary and higher secondary stages, girls are outpacing boys at the college and university levels too. “Thanks to the recent incentives taken by the state and central governments, the percentage of girls pursuing education at primary and university levels has increased manifold,” she said.