Around 30,000 students from Bengal will sit for their ISC (Class XII) exams beginning Thursday.

Across India, about 1.05 lakh candidates will take the school-leaving exam conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE). The exams will conclude on April 6.

The exams will begin with the psychology paper. Not all students opt for psychology, and the subject is not offered in all ISC schools. Most that offer it as an option have around 30 to 35 students enrolled.

Except for the art papers, all ISC exams will begin at 2pm. Students are to be seated in the exam halls by 1.30pm.

This year, the CISCE is introducing a system under which individual question papers will be sealed. Candidates will break open the seal at the start of the 15-minute reading time, before writing begins.

In view of a nationwide bank strike on Thursday, the council has asked exam centres to pick up the psychology question papers on Wednesday and store them with other confidential materials, more than one centre head said.

“The council has an app where chief supervising examiners must upload pictures of various exam processes, such as withdrawing the question papers from the bank, distributing them and depositing answer scripts at the collection centres,” a principal said.

Schools have additional responsibilities this year. “The answer scripts have to be deposited at the collection centre, which adds to the responsibilities of the school and the chief supervising examiner,” said Terence John, director of education and development at Julien Day Schools.

Schools have been advised to avoid public transport and use school transport instead.

The council has held several online meetings with principals to ensure the smooth and fair conduct of the exams and to update exam personnel on rules and regulations.

“The meetings helped schools resolve any doubts about the processes,” said Sujoy Biswas, principal, Rammohan Mission High School.