Students take the board examinations in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Feb. 23: Around 400 students were expelled on the first day of this year’s Class X board examination today.

Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) is conducting the examination.

Around 9.31 lakh students are appearing for the examination this year comprising 5.32 lakh boys and 3.99 lakh girls.

The maximum number of students were expelled from test centres in Nawada and Gopalganj. Around 100 examinees were suspended from each of the centres. Eleven students were expelled in the state capital. Apart from the 400 students, 117 parents were arrested for assisting their wards in cheating during examinations.

Those expelled were mostly found carrying chits into the examination hall. Some of them were caught while passing answer sheets or copying answers from others.

A.K.P. Yadav, the chairman of BSEB, said: “The students were expelled after they were found indulging in several malpractices and were expelled on the instruction of the examination invigilator.”

The chairman said he visited various schools today and also enquired about the paper. Most of the students said today’s social science paper was easy, he said.

Yadav said: “This year, we introduced a model paper for the students and they benefited from it, as they had a clear idea about the kind of questions they would have to face in the examination.”

Vivek Kumar, a student of Government School, Khagaul, said: “Even though today’s paper was easy, we are not complacent as many important examinations are ahead, including mathematics, science and English.”

This year, the examination is being held under the new pattern based on the CBSE format and for the first time students have been given 15 additional minutes for reading the question paper. The board has set up 1,329 examination centres.

Yadav said: “Our main task is to ensure that the examination is carried out in a fair manner. For this, the board has decided to deal strictly with the students involved in malpractice. Apart from admit cards, we have arranged for an attendance register that is to be filled by the student, which would have their photographs.”