Paradip, April 19: Thirty-five students of Tirtol block headquarters area had to miss the Class V scholarship examination because of administrative slip-up.

The examination was conducted by the school and mass education department yesterday.

Out of 235 students of Class V, 35 failed to take the examination because of last-minute changes of the examination centre. Students and guardians were confused to find the alterations in the examination centre at the eleventh hour.

“In the admit card issued by the authorities, my child was asked to appear at Bana Behari High School examination centre in Kujang. But I was shocked to find that the centre had been shifted to Chatual Girls’ High School, which is about 5 km from the earlier centre. I hardly had any time to reach the centre. Both of us walked there. By the time we reached, the scholarship examination had commenced. My ward was not allowed to sit for the examination,” said Duryodhan Rout, a guardian.

Angry guardians said it was sheer callousness on the part of the local school and mass education department that had taken away the opportunity from some students to appear for the merit scholarship examination.

“There was some communication gap that led to the confusion.

“As evaluation of HSC examination answer sheets is going on at the Bana Behari High School, the centre for merit scholarship examination had been shifted to the nearby government-run girls’ high school.

But guardians were not properly apprised of the change.

“An inquiry has been ordered into incident. But there is provision for re-examination for those students who could not appear for the test,” said Prasant Kumar Swain, circle inspector of schools, Jagatsinghpur district.