Over 8 lakh students to appear for Class 12 board exams from Monday

According to a circular issued by the School Education Department, 2,700 examination centres have been allotted in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. In all, 8.16 lakh students will write the exam, which will go on till March 24. Compared to boys, more girls are taking the exams this year as well.

Sources from the Directorate of Examinations said that as part of stringent measures, not just students, but even supervisors will not be allowed to carry their mobile phones in the centres. Also, since those coming beyond 15 minutes will not be permitted to take the exam, schools have advised students to reach on time.

Reading of the question paper will commence from 10 am to 10.10 am while verification of candidates’ particulars is scheduled to be completed in five minutes. Hence, the duration of the examination will be from 10.15 am to 1.15 pm. More than 30 high level officials from the Directorate of School Education have been deployed as special observers to monitor the exam proceedings and over 45,000 teachers will be involved in the board exams.

The Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE), which is responsible for organising Class 10, 11 and 12 board exams, also initiated several other steps this year, including an increase in the number of flying squad members.

The DGE also warned that if a candidate was found guilty of copying and attempting to copy from forbidden papers, they would be debarred for next two examinations. Copying from another candidate will attract cancellation of performance and debarment for more than one year.

In order to prevent impersonation, every candidate will be provided with an answer booklet containing the photograph of the candidate on top of the sheet. The part of the top sheet, which contains candidate’s identity, will be detached in the examination centre itself and the remaining part with barcoded information alone will be sentfor evaluation.