GIS mapping to find closer exam centre

Guwahati: The Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) has launched GIS mapping of schools and examination centres to minimise travel distance for students.
Board officials said students would be allocated centres closer to their schools based on the mapping. Students in hilly terrains and the riverine belt of Assam have been facing difficulties commuting long distances to reach centres for their board examination. Officials said sometimes they had to trek almost 10 km!
Sources in AHSEC told TOI that all 1,784 institutions affiliated to it, including higher secondary schools, degree colleges and erstwhile junior colleges (now known as senior secondary schools), have been asked to complete geo-tagging at the earliest. “About 150 educational institutions have already done the tagging after the exercise was launched last week. A mobile app is being used for the purpose which will help AHSEC choose the nearest examination centre,” a senior board official said.
There is no specific guideline regarding the maximum distance between a school and the centre, but board officials said they are trying to keep all the centres within a maximum distance of 5 km from the schools.
AHSEC officials informed GIS mapping will benefit Class XII students, who would be appearing for the boards early next year. “A record number of students would be expected to sit for the exam,” said an official. While around 2.5 lakh students have been appearing every year for the Class XII state boards, for 2023, about 3.5 lakh candidates have registered to take the AHSEC-conducted boards.
“Many institutions are asking for examination centres on their campus. The GIS mapping will help in the accurate calculation of the distance and allocation of centres,” said the official.
The pass percentage in the Class X state board exam in 2021 was 93.10, the best ever results in the history of the Board of Secondary Education, Assam. The same students will appear for the Class XII boards next year. Offline examinations were scrapped due to the Covid-19 threat in 2021 and evaluation was based on a statistical formula and internal assessment of respective schools.