West Bengal Board suggests to shut internet services during Class 10, 12 exams to prevent paper leak: Report

NEW DELHI: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) has proposed to shut internet services during Class 10, 12 board exams 2022 to prevent paper leak, according to a News19 report. Class 10 board exams will start from March 7 and end on March 16, 2022. Whereas, West Bengal Class 12 exams 2022 will commence from April 2 and conclude on April 20, 2022.

Last year, West Bengal 10th, 12th board exams were not conducted due to COVID-19 pandemic. Cases of alleged exam leak after commencement of exams and cheating during exams came up, the report said.

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Earlier on Tuesday, Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi reportedly held a press conference with the district governors and police superintendents of each district in the state regarding preparation of board exams. The members mainly discussed the arrangement for offline Class 10, 12 exams. In the meeting, the school education department proposed to close internet services while showing a powerpoint presentation, the report said.

According to the report, the state closed internet services within 100 metres of exam centres earlier too. As per school education department, more than 11 lakh candidates will appear for Class 12 exams. The number of Class 12 exam centers is more than Class 10 exam centers, it said.

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There is no plan to change the schedule of upcoming offline board exams in West Bengal for now, given the fact that the dates decided upon are some three to four months away and the COVID-19 situation could improve by then, authorities said in January.

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Last year, exams were called off amid the raging second wave of the pandemic. Authorities had to come up with an alternative method for evaluating the students. Higher Secondary exams, which had commenced in 2020 before the pandemic struck, were scrapped midway owing to the pandemic, forcing the board to devise a formula to award marks to the students. In 2021, no examination was held, with authorities drawing up a different evaluation criterion for the students.

(With inputs from PTI)