Cuttack: The Annual High School Certificate (HSC) Examinations 2018 began at 2818 centres across Odisha on Friday.
A total of 6, 08,031 students including 5,67,254 Regular students are appearing in the examinations.
Sources said the students, as instructed by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), arrived at the examination centres at 8 AM. After entering the examination room, they were given the OMR sheets at 8.15 AM. The examination began at 9 AM after the students were provided with question and answer sheets at 8.45 AM.
For smooth conduct of the examinations, three-tier security has been put in place to prevent malpractice. Of the three-tier squad, one has been formed at the district level under the District Education Officer (DEO), the second squad has been formed by the BSE while the third squad has been by the School and Mass Education Department comprising of its officers.
The Board has formed 37 special squads with two members in each squad while 58 district level squads have been formed at the DEO level by the School and Mass Education Department.
The district Collectors and SPs have been asked to make surprise visit to the examination centres at their respective districts.
Security has been tightened at sensitive examination centres in the Maoist infested districts of Koraput, Malkangiri, Bolangir, Rayagada, Gajpati, Kandhamal, Boudh and Deogarh.
As informed by the BSE president Dr Jahan Ara Begum, the question papers and other materials for the first three papers have been despatched to all the 302 nodal centres where 24-hour security has been put in place.
Question papers from 24 nodal centres set up in police stations were dispatched to the examination centres amid tight security in the early morning hours on Friday, she added.
The examinations would be concluded on March 8.
To curb malpractice, the School and Mass Education Department this year has asked the BSE to make special provisions for the students to appear in the examinations at other examination centres instead of appearing in their own schools.
For the first time, the Board this year has introduced online information transfer system to know about the details of all examinations from the centre superintendents who have been asked to send the information by 3 PM after the examination is concluded.
