BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to check paper leaks, the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) Odisha is set to introduce watermarked and unique QR code-based question papers in the annual High School Certificate (HSC) examination, scheduled to begin from February 21.
Over 5.10 lakh students will appear the exams across 3,133 centres in the state.
BSE president Srikant Tarai on Thursday said, every question paper will have a serial number and unique QR code to trace them at any point. “Each sheet of the question paper will have a watermark and a dynamic QR code which will enable us to pinpoint which examination centre it has been given and to which candidate.
Every candidate will have a serial number and the attendance sheet of the centre will record which question paper number has been assigned to which serial number. Through these measures, we can easily know who leaked the question and from which examination centre, if such situation arises,” he said.
This time, 314 nodal centres will be set up in 30 districts for monitoring the examinations and evaluation. They include 21 police stations (seven in Kandhamal, four in Koraput and 10 in Malkangiri) and one beat house at Lamtaput in Koraput district. “The nodal centres in police stations have been set up in areas where complaints of security lapses and malpractice are reported every year,” the BSE head said.
All the examination centres will be centrally monitored through CCTVs. For heightened surveillance, all the cameras in both examination centres and the nodal centres will be AI-enabled. The examination process at the exam centres will be live-streamed and officials concerned will monitor the real-time proceedings through a central command control room at the BSE Cuttack office, Tarai said.
Along with HSC examination, the State Open School Certificate (SOSC) and Madhyama exams will also be conducted for 7,766 and 3,792 students respectively.
The question papers will be dispatched to exam centres on February 12 and would reach the centres by February 19. While the examination will continue till March 6, evaluation of answer sheets is set to begin from March 19.
A total of 51 evaluation centres will be set up for the purpose. “We will need a month or a little more time to declare the results,” Tarai added.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Exam schedule - Feb 21 to March 6
Timing of exam - 9:00 am to 11:30 am
Admit cards availability on BSE website - Feb 10 onwards
Number of HSC
examinees - 5,10,778
Number of exam centres - 3,133
Number of evaluation centres - 51
Evaluation of papers - March 19