The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) are in with some significant changes. After the flake of question papers getting leaked and major goof up in calculating marks in the board exams; the officials are coming up with stringent measures every hour to avoid such embarrassment in the future. Recently, CBSE had pilot tested double encrypted question papers during the class 10 compartmental exams and at present, are analysing to increase its prospect in the coming years. Now, CBSE had decided to ban late entry in the exam hall during the board exams. From 2019, all the candidates will have to be seated by 10:15 am. CBSE Partners With Tech Giant Microsoft to Prevent Question Paper Leaks. 

Sources from the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry have informed that just like other competitive exams—JEE, NEET or CAT; ‘late entry’ will be ‘completely barred’ at class 10 and class 12 board exams from next year. This step has been taken to make the exams more secure. A ministry source was quoted in a TOI report, “Exams like JEE or NEET and even CAT are secured for a number of reasons and one of them is strict entry timings. No student is allowed beyond the stipulated timing.”

Until March-April 2018 during the board exams, the official entry time at the examination centres begin at 9:30 am followed by distribution of question papers at 10:15 am and 15 minutes given to students for reading it. Although as per the scheduled time, the exam starts at 10:30 am, both class 10 and class 12 students were allowed ‘late entry’ till 11:00 am and ‘emergency entry’ till 11:15 am. CBSE Invites Online Applications for Scholarships Under CSSS. 

The recent measure of restricting the entry and the encrypted question papers will help streamline the exam process, which has been spoiled recently by incidents of leaks. A senior official also reported that CBSE would issue a circular for strict compliance with the entry timing and all the respective centre supervisors will be responsible for its strict implementation. According to a CBSE spokesperson, the board will introduce the encrypted papers in the main exam in March 2019, ‘but at a lower scale.’ The current plan to present the same will be done in vocational exams with comparatively a smaller number of candidates and centres.

The board is working on the logistics and will accordingly update the HRD Ministry, and a final decision is expected by December this year. As per the recent announcement on entry timings, the examinees are recommended to do a complete recce of their centres, scale the traffic density for the day and as a precautionary measure, start early enough to avoid the last-minute rush and most importantly, they do not end up missing their exam.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 20, 2018 04:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).