Guwahati: The Board of Secondary Education, Assam (Seba), has reduced gaps in exam dates of the HSLC examinations as it will complete the exams within 11 days. The examinations will be held from the second week of February.
Last year, the examinations were held for 22 days from Feb 17, but this time the gaps between the exam dates will be shorter depending on the subjects.
The controller of examination of Seba, Nayan Jyoti Sarmah, told this correspondent that gaps would be given only for exams of major subjects while tests of the elective subjects would be conducted daily. He added that there would not be any gap between some of the exams.
This year, 3.8 lakh students will appear for the examinations in 852 centres across the state. The examinees have been instructed to use black ink as the mathematics papers will be evaluated digitally.
"We are thinking of evaluating all answer scripts digitally and to start with only the mathematics papers will be digitally evaluated. From next year answer scripts of all subjects will be evaluated digitally to ensure error-free evaluation," said Sarmah.
He added this time, the practical examinations would be held earlier - from the third week of January because of panchayat elections.
"Generally, the practical tests are conducted after the written exams. This time to minimise last-hour rush and declare the results on time, we will conduct the practicals earlier because there could be problems during panchayat elections," he said.
The board faces complaints that it cannot conduct the examinations smoothly.
This time, however, it has also made some rules such as students cannot take question papers along with them if they leave the examination hall within two hours.
Examinees allege most of them do not receive graph papers. To avoid such crises, this time, graph papers will be stitched with answer scripts.
The evaluation of answer scripts will be done in 34 zones. There will be separate zones for evaluation of mathematics papers.