+2 exam reforms: State to set up 200 management hubs to conduct +2 exam

BHUBANESWAR: As a safety mechanism to make plus-II examination under the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) more streamlined, the State Government introduced about 70 suggestions critically analysed by the members of Examination Reforms Committee including setting up of examination management hubs (EMH) in the State, said Higher Education Minister Badri Narayan Patro here on Thursday.

The recommendations would be taken up in two phases, said the committee and added that the first phase will be implemented from the current session 2013-14.

Department of Higher Education in its decision proposed to set up as many as 200 examination management hubs across the State to supervise conduct of the examination. District Collector, superintendent of police and four senior principals of +2 colleges would select places for setting up the hubs situated near police stations. CCTV cameras will be installed in the hubs, said the Minister.

Patro said that they are going to introduce a three stitched 32-page answer sheet while no additional answer sheets would be given to the students during examination. The answer sheets of students securing less than 25 per cent and above 90 per cent would be reevaluated by chief examiner and deputy chief examiner, he added.

According to new pattern, the question paper should be dispatched from the Council to EMH two days before the examination and from EMH, the QPs would be sent to the respective Examination Centre with full security on the day of examination between 7 am to 9 am. In this process, the security of questions would be ensured by the Council. Under no circumstances, the question packets (QPs) would be transported from Council to the EMHs and from EMH to examination centers without full security. The QPs shall be opened and signed by the centre superintendents or deputy centre superintendents and representative of district administration.

In this system, both the Centre Superintendent and Deputy Centre Superintendent will be responsible for safety and security of the question papers and answer sheets. Squading would be done independently by a committee consisting of Higher education director as chairman and representatives of the department and CHSE council as members. There will be more transparency in squading system.

Initiatives would be taken for the development of infrastructure in the hubs to supply question packets online. The suggestions would be presented in the State Assembly, said the Minister.