Agitated guardians in front of Khalsa Model Senior Secondary School. Picture by Sanat Kr. Sinha

Candidates at the first all-India medical entrance test had a harrowing time on Sunday because of an alleged lack of communication from the authorities over the size of the photograph each was to produce at the venue.

Students and guardians said the CBSE, which conducts the test, had mentioned in the “Information Bulletin” on its website that each examinee had to produce his/her picture of the dimension 3.5”x5”. But it later changed the size to 4’’x6’’ allegedly keeping a large number of examinees in the dark.

CBSE officials could not be contacted despite repeated attempts to know their response to the allegation.

“CBSE had posted on its site in January that we would have to carry a 3.5”x5” photograph to the exam venue. There was no letter or SMS alert from the board about the change,” said Aminur Rehman, an examinee in Liluah, who learnt on reaching the venue that some candidates had received text messages from the board on Saturday about the change. Aminur was allowed to write the test.

At Khalsa Model Senior Secondary School in Dunlop, candidates learnt before the start of the three-hour exam that only a few had been informed by the board about the change.

“Students were earlier told to bring their admit cards and 3.5”×4” pictures. But on Saturday a few received a text message from the board asking them to download and fill in a form and affix a 4”×6” picture on it,” said Tapan Pal of Basirhat, whose daughter Tania was an examinee at the Dunlop school.

Many of the 700 examinees at the school had to run to photo studios minutes before the test started at 10am. Quite a few broke down in front of the school gate.

A guardian alleged that candidates carrying smaller photographs were asked to step out of the school premises at one point. With students and guardians getting agitated, the school authorities alerted Baranagar police station around 20 minutes before the exam started.

Later, principal J. Biswas stepped out and announced that everyone would be allowed to write the test and the school would bring a photographer to take pictures of those who had brought 3.5”x5” photographs. “We did not deserve this harassment before such a crucial examination,” said Nazma Sultana, a candidate from Berachampa in North 24-Parganas.

The principal declined comment citing a gag order from the board.

Anjana Saha, the principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy, said CBSE had asked them about 10 days ago to arrange for photographers at the venue on the test day.

S.S. Agarwal, the CBSE co-ordinator for Siliguri, said photographers were brought to all centres in the north Bengal city. “We made sure that pictures of all students were taken 30 minutes before the test,” said Agarwal.

Language woe

At two Kendriya Vidyalayas, many candidates complained that they had to write the test in English despite opting for Bengali. The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to stop the state medical entrance test and accept the all-India examination only after being assured by the Centre that candidates willing to write the paper in vernacular languages would be allowed to do so.

“In our hall, most of the 24 candidates had opted to write in Bengali. But the question papers were in English,” said Moumita Mandal, an examinee at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ordnance Factory Dum Dum. There were similar allegations at Kendriya Vidyalaya Cossipore.