Bhubaneswar: The state government on Thursday announced reforms in the conduct of the matriculation examination.

The Board of Secondary Education, Odisha, will change the pattern of matric exam, while the new pattern will be implemented from 2020-21 session.

The multiple-choice question pattern in the OMR sheet will be abolished, and instead, students will have to appear a 50-mark objective and another 50-mark subjective type questions in the examination.

"We have received a lot of complaints related to problems in exam through OMR sheets. So, the model needed to be changed," said board president Jahanara Begum.

Earlier, a team, headed by the board director and consisting of officials, including the higher education department director, mass education department secretary and the district education officers, were formed to look into the issue. The team submitted its report on the proposed change in the matric exam model.

For the 2019 matriculation examination, some changes in question pattern and minimum pass marks have also been made. The students will have to secure a minimum of 15 marks for each subjective and objective subject to pass the exam.

Begum also informed that four sets of question papers will be introduced instead of three. All the sets will be different from each other, while the questions will be similar. Academics feel the move will be helpful in testing the reasoning capability of the students.

"It will be helpful in enhancing the decision making abilities of the students. But, a number of awareness campaigns need to be hosted to make the students familiar with the pattern," said Shantilata Jena, principal of a government school.

To check malpractice and ensure transparency during the exam, the government has decided to install CCTV cameras at all exam centres across the state starting 2018-19 academic year.

The CCTVs will be installed with an aim to make all centres "zero copy" zones.