Students writing in candlelight at Howrah Haat School. Picture by Gopal Senapati

Calcutta, Feb. 16: More than 200 students wrote most of their Madhyamik second paper in candlelight in a Howrah school today.

Lights in Howrah Haat School went off at 11.55am, during the first 15 minutes of the exam when students were supposed to only read their question papers. It was a cable fault.

The supply was restored around 2pm, an hour before the second language second paper exam was to end.

“The school is in a densely-populated area where there are a number of highrise buildings. Once the lights went off, many of the classrooms were plunged into darkness. There were no windows in some of the rooms,” one of the examinees said. “We had to write almost the entire exam in candlelight.”

Some of them complained about not being allowed extra time, though several minutes were wasted in the confusion that followed the power cut.

“We should have been allotted extra time. It took time for the authorities to arrange candles,” said a boy.

None of the examinees or their guardians wanted to be named.

The school lit the candles and placed them on benches around 10 minutes after darkness descended.

Local CESC officials came to the area — near Mullick Fatak, around 10km from Calcutta — half an hour later and took one-and-a-half hours more to repair the fault.

Guardians accused them of arriving late and acting slowly.

CESC denied the charge. A spokesman said tonight that they were informed about the fault near the school around 11.45am. “Our men went there immediately and saw smoke around the cable. It took nearly two hours to repair it.”

He regretted the inconvenience to examinees.

The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education confirmed receiving complaints from examinees in the Howrah school.

“The power went off at the Howrah centre because of a cable fault. But the examinees could write their papers as the school authorities had arranged candles for them. We have requested the CESC authorities to take prompt action to restore power supply if there are similar faults in the future,” said its president Mamata Roy.

The guardians, however, alleged that lighting arrangements in the school were “very poor” and the board should not have held the examination there.

“There was little daylight in the rooms and the children had to depend entirely on electric lights first and then candlelight,” said a father.

The board made special arrangements in Bangur Hospital to enable a girl from a school in Tollygunge to write her exam. She was suffering from diarrhoea and had to be hospitalised last night. Invigilators were sent to the hospital especially for the girl.