The first day of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination went smoothly with over 14 lakh students appearing for it across Maharashtra on Friday.
The Mumbai division alone has 335020 HSC exam candidates and 1282 centres have been set up for them. There is a significant increase in the number of exam centres this year due to the “your school your exam centre” policy, under which students have been allowed to sit for the exams at their own school or junior college.
Thanks to this, the Board helpline in Mumbai division received only a couple of calls on Friday.
“Generally, the calls received on day one of the exam are related to difficulties in finding exam centres, not being able to reach in time, inadequate facilities at the centre and others. But as today, all had to report to their respective junior colleges or schools, students hardly faced any issues,” said Kalpesh Shinde, a teacher counsellor who was attending the Mumbai division helpline.
Meanwhile, a few photos from inside the exam hall, and of answer sheets, showed up on social media. Anubha Shrivastava from India Wide Parents Association, who received such photos, said, “The photos show that cellphones were allowed inside the exam hall, which was never allowed before. A few screenshots of chats
indicate how students indulged in cheating in a few centres…”
While there is no way of specifying locations of these photos, they seem to have gone viral from the interiors of Maharashtra. The Board, however, has no plans to investigate this further. Chairman Sharad Gosavi said, “There is no way of knowing for sure if these photos were taken today.”