Madhyamik paper packets to be opened before students

TNN | Dec 11, 2018,KOLKATA: For those appearing for Madhyamik in 2019, the sealed packets containing the question papers will be opened in front of them instead of in the rooms of the headmasters of the schools, where the Class-X state boards exams will be held.

“We want to introduce the change. We will hold two meetings with the centre secretary, officer in-charge and district administration to inform them about the steps that have to be taken,” said Kalyanmoy Ganguly, president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, on Monday. “Till now, the exam venue supervisor, along with the school’s headmaster or principal, had to be present with when the seals of the question paper packets were broken. The question papers were then sorted according to the number of examinees and sent to the examination hall.” This year, the sealed packets will be sent directly to the examination halls and will be opened by the invigilators. “The packets will contain the exact number of papers as the examinees in a hall.”

The move has, however, apparently not gone down well with the teachers. “It will be a tedious work to allot the exact number of question papers as candidates in each room. Is the board equipped with the data to prepare such a list?” said Saugata Basu, secretary, West Bengal Government School Teachers Association. “It requires a huge infrastructure update.”

Board insiders said the decision had been taken after the headmaster of a school in Jalpaiguri’s Maynaguri last year allegedly opened the sealed packets well ahead of exam schedule, got answers ready by the subject teachers and then passed them on to the first boy at his school. Two assistant teachers at Subhas Nagar High School lodged a complaint against the headmaster, Haridayal Ray, with Biswanath Bhowmik, sub-inspector (SI) of schools for Maynaguri. He was suspended but an inquiry committee failed to implicit the real reason behind the incident.