File picture of an HSC examination in progress

Kendrapara, March 28: Increased surveillance on malpractice and unfair means has led many older examinees to skip the annual high school certificate examination halfway.

Failure on their part to adopt unfair means has forced them sit out of rest of the examinations.

Examinees appearing for ex-regular courses and correspondence courses are mostly skipping examination midway due to strict supervision. These students hoped to cross the HSC barrier by resorting to unfair means. Vigil has been stepped up and has proved to be their undoing.

“Of the 2,120 ex-regular examinees, 347 have chosen to skip the examination. The dropout rate among the correspondence course examinees is the worst. Nearly 50 per cent of 134 correspondence students have dropped out of the examination after sitting for it once or twice,” said Sekhar Chandra Sahu, circle inspector of schools, Kendrapara. The examination dropout ratio is abnormally high with regard to both correspondence and ex-regular students. The dropout rate reported in past years stood at two to three per cent. Sickness, examination stress and performance prompt the candidates to skip examinations midway. But the stringent malpractice control measures this year have contributed to the steady rise in drop-out that was around 20 per cent for ex-regular and nearly 50 per cent for correspondence courses, schools and mass education department officials said.

“We have booked 229 ex-regular and correspondence course examinees for examination malpractice. After discontinuing their studies, they had by resorted to unfair means. But we have laid emphasis on smooth and fair conduct of the examination for both the regular and ex-regular students,” Sahu said.

Usually, those in charge of examination supervision are lenient towards these older students.

“After failing in earlier attempts, most of these students reappear for the examination through ex-regular and correspondence courses. They are not at all career-conscious. They simply wanted to pass and get a HSC certificate by using unfair means. Some of the examinees who skipped the correspondence course examination were in their fifties, officials said.

“I have fared poorly in two papers. There is little hope that I would secure 30% cut off mark for passing out. That’s why; I skipped the rest of the examination schedule. I was having the impression that invigilators are less strict towards old students like us and ignore the malpractice. But I was proved wrong as invigilators were quite strict”, confided an ex-regular examinee, who skipped the examination midway.