Cuttack, March 13: Orissa Board of Secondary Education’s (BSE) plan to have lecturers in the special squads for the annual High School Certificate (HSC) Class X examination, which is to be held from March 16, has received lukewarm response from the colleges. This is mainly because of acute shortage of staff due to the ongoing Plus Two examinations.

As part of the several measures to prevent malpractice, BSE had decided to have at least one lecturer in each of the special squads to monitor examination centres.

Official sources said the board had been receiving complaints that rampant malpractice was being adopted in examination centres at various parts of the state with support from teachers and officials of zone offices in the special squads. The Board hoped to put a check on it by including college lecturers in the special squads.“We had called for the services of lecturers through requests to Colleges. However, in most cases, principals expressed unwillingness due to the ongoing annual Plus Two examination in the colleges,” BSE president, Satyakam Mishra, told The Telegraph.

“It’s not just the Plus Two examinations. An acute shortage of teaching staff is another major reason for our inability to give a positive response,” Ravenshaw Junior College principal, Prabhudatta Das, told The Telegraph.

“We are already hard pressed to conduct smooth invigilation of the ongoing Plus Two examinations and the first year plus three degree examination due to inadequate faculty members in various departments. How can we spare staff members in such a situation,” Shailabala Womens’ College principal, Dr Smita Hota, told The Telegraph.“The response has been very poor. However, we have included in 20 per cent of the special squads, teachers from the 13 District Institute of Education and Training (DTET) across the state and lecturers where the principals have responded to our requests,” BSE controller of examinations, Nimai Charan Swain, told The Telegraph.

“As part of the measures to prevent malpractice, BSE had constituted 90 special squads under the 19 Circle Inspectors across the state to monitor examination centres. Besides, 30 special squads have been constituted at the BSE headquarter level for each of the districts,” Swain said.

The squads have been constituted with one schoolteacher and one board official. But officials from the zone offices of the board have not been included in the squads.

Nearly four lakh students are expected to sit for the annual High School Certificate (HSC) Class X examination to start from March 16 and continue till March 29 in 2,200 examination centres across the state. Another two lakh non-regular students are also expected to take the examination this year.

The Board had organised a special training session for the 19 Circle Inspectors for smooth conduct of the HSC examination with emphasis on checking malpractices. The CIs were expected to train the teachers of their respective circles before the examination, official sources said.