CBSE to ban late entry into exam halls during board exams

NEW DELHI: Do a recce of your centre, factor in traffic congestion and start early so that you don't miss your Board exam papers in 2019.
Like all competitive exams - Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) or Common Admission Test (CAT) - 'late entry' will be "completely barred" at classes X and XII Board exams by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) from next year.All candidates will have to be seated by 10.15 am.
According to sources in the human resource development (HRD) ministry, this step and other measures like encrypted question papers are to be tried out to make the exams more secured.
As per the current practice, the official entry time at the exam centres begins at 9.30am and distribution of question papers starts at 10.15am while 15 minutes are given for reading it. Although the exam starts at 10.30am, students, till March-April 2018 Board exams, were allowed 'late entry' till 11am and 'emergency entry' till 11.15am, mostly at the discretion of the centre heads.
"Exams like JEE or NEET and even CAT are secured for a number of reasons and one of them is strict entry timings. No student is allowed beyond the stipulated timing," said the ministry source. CBSE's step will help it streamline the exam process, which has been marred recently by incidents of leaks, he added.
According to a senior ministry official, CBSE is going to issue a circular for strict compliance of the entry timing and the centre supervisors will be accountable for its strict implementation.
The Board, which pilot-tested double encrypted question papers during the compartmental exams from July 16 to 25, is also analysing the prospect of scaling it up. Thirty-two centres in Delhi had received the papers and passwords 30 minutes before the Class X compartmental exam on July 16. The centre superintendents opened the papers with the unique passwords, printed one copy and made requisite photocopies for the candidates. After its successful run, on July 20, CBSE used the method for Hindi A and B papers at 211 centres across the country and seven centres abroad.
CBSE is likely to introduce the same in the main exam in March 2019, "but at a lower scale", said a ministry source. At present, the plan is to introduce encrypted papers for subjects, such as vocational ones, with comparatively less number of candidates and less number of centres, he said.
"The Board is working on the logistics and will update the ministry following which the final decision is likely to be taken by December," he added.