The Hindu : New Delhi News : CBSE Class XII examinations begin today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 01, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

CBSE Class XII examinations begin today

Staff Reporter

More than 1.5 lakh students have registered for the exams at 524 centres across the Capital

NEW DELHI: Over 4.5 lakh students will appear for their Class XII Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examinations all over the country beginning Wednesday. Commencing with English Elective, Functional English and English Core papers on Wednesday, the Class XII examinations will wrap up by April 8.

This year more than 1.5 lakh Class XII students have registered for the exams at 524 allocated city centres across the Capital. The number of girls appearing for the exams in Delhi too has seen an increase of 7.04 per cent compared to last year.

Beginning with Social Sciences, the Class X examinations that commence all over the country from March 2 have more than 6.4 lakh students registered. The Class X exams conclude by March 27.

Talking about highlights of this year's Board examination, CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly said: "We will be giving 15 minutes extra time for reading the question paper. Examinees will enter the examination hall at 10 a.m. and answer scripts will be distributed from 10 to 10-15 a.m. The students may write their roll numbers and other details during this time. At 10-15 a.m. the question papers will be distributed and between 10-15 a.m. and 10-30 a.m. students will read the question paper. Also, the number of pages in the main answer books of Class XII and X has been increased to 32 this year to avoid handling of supplementary answer sheets.''

New paper

"This year will see the first batch of Class XII students taking their paper on Fashion Studies. Also for Class X, the Board has integrated 20 marks of internal assessment with the 80 marks main paper of which students would be quizzed for 8 marks on disaster management,'' he added.

Advising students to stay calm during the examination, Mr. Ganguly asked them to treat it as a routine educational process. He added that the Board had redesigned and restructured question papers for both Class X and XII to allow students to finish the examination in two-and-half-hours. The new system will be applicable in Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences for Class X students and Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Business Studies, Accountancy and Mathematics for Class XII.

Of the 524 centres in Delhi, 198 have been declared ``sensitive'' and more staff has been deployed here. ``The CBSE has a three-tier arrangement for surprise checking this year. Flying squads of CBSE and Directorate of Education, Delhi, and special observers from outside will carry out the checks,'' said a CBSE spokesperson. The Board has also written to the Delhi police and the Transport Department to help facilitate smooth conduct of the examinations and have also issued general instructions to all students to reach their centres 45 minutes before the scheduled examination time.

Meanwhile, in foreign countries, including the Gulf, about 16,000 students will appear for the Board examinations and 38 centres have been set up for Class XII and 49 for Class X. Special arrangements have been made for handicapped students. While 937 students will appear under the special category this year from across the country -- handicapped students account for the highest number in this category followed by dyslexics and blind students.

Leave early

The Delhi traffic police have advised the parents of children appearing for the Board examinations to leave early for the centres on March 2 and 3 in view of restrictions on vehicular movement due to security arrangements for U.S. President George W. Bush.

Apart from President Bush's cavalcade, there would be heavy movement of several other prominent politicians and VVIPs, primarily in New Delhi and South Delhi. Though the traffic would be blocked during the VIP movement, the police have been informally asked to make sure that students headed for the examination centres get priority. The students have also been advised to avoid India Gate as vehicular movement would be restricted in that area due to security reasons.

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