Matric exam of Odissa Board to start from February 25

The matriculation examination will now start from February 25 in view of the two-day nationwide strike call given by major trade unions on February 20 and 21. It was earlier scheduled from February 20. The examination, which will continue till March 9, will start from 9 am now instead of the earlier 7:30 am. Also, students will be given question-cum-answer booklets.

Over five lakh students will appear for the examination in the regular stream, while the number of ex-regular examinees stands at over 70,000.

The board has earmarked over 2,500 examination centres across the state and these are situated within 10 km radius of schools. "We have tried our best to allot students the examination centres nearest to the schools, but there are a few exceptions. Many schools in remote areas cannot not be made centre for lack of proper infrastructure," said the board president.

The matriculation examination last year was dogged by controversies. It had to be rescheduled following theft of question papers from an examination centre. So the board has decided to store question papers at nodal centres, instead of examintation centres, to ensure safety.

The board has identified 301 nodal centres across the state for this purpose. This year, students will have to write answers on question-cum-answer booklets. "This will help check malpractices during examination, and would also put a check on erratic evaluation of the answers by examiners," Nanda added.

The board has also decided to form a three-tier squad to check malpractices. These will be formed at district-level, zonal-level and at the central-level.