CBSE students allotted exam centre 26kms away, board officials assure change : Education News

Sixty class 10 students of Malad’s Billabong High School were shocked to find out that the exam centre allotted to them for the upcoming board exams was nearly 26 kms away from their school and residence. All residents of Malad, these students were assigned to appear for their board exams at KMS School in Parel.

While minor papers for CBSE class 10 and 12 students commenced from November 16, the major papers are scheduled to start from November 30 this year. Worried about the amount of time students will end up spending commuting to and from the exam centre, parents approached the regional office of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in Pune, where authorities have now assured them of a change in exam centre.

“As if preparing for the exam is not tough enough, our children were expected to travel 50 kms every day (to and fro) for the exams. I was contemplating booking my daughter and myself into a hotel room in Parel, close to the exam centre,” said the mother of one of the students.

Starting this academic year, CBSE decided to conduct board exams in two rounds—the first of these rounds is currently underway. The 90-minute objective type question papers will be answered on OMR sheets.

“November 30 onwards students will go to the allotted exam centre to appear for their papers and we refuse to understand why our school principal did not raise objection to such a grave error when she was first informed about it. Students received their hall tickets early this week and despite several queries raised (by parents), they got little help from the school.

Repeated attempts to reach school authorities did not yield any response.

An official from the CBSE regional office in Pune told HT that the complaints from parents of the school has been received and new hall tickets will be released by early next week. “We have already allotted these students to another school at a distance of only 4kms,” said M Dharmadhikari, the CBSE regional director for Pune (Mumbai schools fall under their jurisdiction).