Bars staff from carrying phones
By: Riyaz Bhat
Srinagar, Oct 21:Â The Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) has barred supervisory staff from carrying mobile phones during examination hours and withdrawn the 20 per cent minimum marks requirement for re-evaluation of answer scripts, allowing candidates to seek a review irrespective of their scores.
In a circular, JKBOSE Secretary directed all centre superintendents to ensure that supervisory staff deposit their mobile phones with them during examinations.
The centre superintendents will be personally responsible for implementing the directive, while they themselves have been exempted from the restriction to facilitate communication with board offices and their departmental hierarchies.
The board has also directed that candidates not be allowed to leave examination centres with question papers until at least half the examination duration has elapsed.
The measures come amid the ongoing annual regular examinations. On Tuesday, JKBOSE constituted a three-member committee to investigate the reported outage of the Class 10 Mathematics question paper shortly after the examination began at a centre in Mahore.
In a separate notification, JKBOSE Director Academics Dr Parveen Singh announced the withdrawal of the condition that candidates must secure at least 20 per cent marks in a subject to qualify for re-evaluation.
The revised provision applies to Classes 10, 11 and 12, Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) and Jammu and Kashmir State Open School examinations for Classes 10 and 12. Candidates can apply under the prescribed procedure, timeline and fee requirements, while other existing conditions governing re-evaluation will remain unchanged. The notification will have prospective effect.
The Class 12 annual regular examinations commenced on Wednesday and will conclude on November 21, while Class 11 examinations will begin on October 29 and end on November 30.
Nearly 97,000 students appeared for the Class 10 examination on October 19 across 1,003 centres in Kashmir and select winter-zone districts of Jammu division. Around 97,500 students are enrolled for the examination, including 72,232 from Kashmir and 25,268 from the winter zones of Jammu division. Overall, approximately 2.7 lakh students have registered for the Class 10, 11 and 12 examinations. (KNO)
