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Madhyamik exam begins
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editor on 17 February, 2008 12:45:00
 
KOLKATA, Feb. 15 : The examinees can call it a perfect day. The first day of
this year's Madhyamik examinations witnessed smiling faces with examinees
wishing to pass off the other examinations with equal ease. The allotment for an
additional 15 minutes for reading question papers was quite a hit among
examinees. However, a blind candidate from a school in Purulia was about to lose
a year due to the callousness of the headmaster.
The examinees appeared for their first language paper I today which includes 12
languages such as Hindi, Bengali, English, Urdu, among others. Ms Mamata Ray,
president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education said, “After
visiting several examination venues in the city, we observed that examinees were
satisfied with the questions. Neither complaints from examinees nor any reports
of untoward incidents from schools were reported. Examinees utilised the
additional time allotted for reading question papers and started writing at
noon.”
The Board president confirmed, this year the number of absentees have reduced
considerably, at least for the first examination the attendance was
satisfactory.
Although no serious accidents were reported, a student of a Garia school met
with an accident on his way to the examination venue and sustained minor injury
but he appeared for the examination today. On the other hand, a blind examinee
appearing at Barabazar High School in Purulia was almost left without a writer.
The headmaster had failed to send details of Aditya Mahato to the Board whereby
Board officials too did not deploy any writer for him. Thus, the district
inspector of school issued a show cause notice to the headmaster and arranged
for a writer.
Teachers seemed to be equally satisfied with the question paper. According to
Ms Tanushree Sengupta, teacher, Sakhawat Memorial Government School, the
questions were quite easy. “Students are expected to do well as the essay
topics and translation portion was quite easy. Most questions were common with
those of the test papers,” said Ms Sengupta.
Voicing a similar opinion, Mr Bablu Samaddar, teacher, Barasat Government
School added: “We visited some schools in North 24-Parganas and examinees
appeared satisfied with the question paper.” Moreover, for the
students’ sake, the Board has allowed a few blind candidates to seek
assistance from class 11 students. “Treating them as special cases, we
have allowed examinees from two schools ~ Blind Boys Academy and Calcutta Blind
School, to take help from senior students. We were informed that they were
unable to arrange for writers from class 9 so we decided to allow senior
students, for this year only,” the Board president said.
According to Board reports, the North Bengal examinees, who appeared for the
examination braving the chilling weather conditions, were pleased with the
special arrangements made by the state administration.