School board exams: Visiting supervisors only at centres with past cheating cases

Pune: The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has revised the guidelines on supervisors and centre directors from other schools in the vicinity for SSC and HSC exams following opposition from teachers’ and school management organisations.

The board in a step towards ‘copy-free’ initiative has now decided to have visiting supervisors and centre heads at exam centers where cases of cheating were found between 2018 and 2024. The changes will take place at centres where exam malpractice cases were reported in the past five years, excluding two years of Covid-19 pandemic – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023, and 2024.

The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Class 10 exam begins on February 21 and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) Class 12 on February 11.

Teachers and management of many schools had strongly opposed the school board’s earlier decision highlighting the practicality and necessity of the directive that also shows unwarranted distrust in teachers. They had threatened to boycott board examinations.

The board has entrusted district collectors, who serve as chairpersons of the district vigilance committee, the authority to make necessary arrangements to ensure transparent conduct of exams. The state board has stated that the education officer (secondary), member secretary of the vigilance committee, and divisional boards will collaborate with the district collectors to deploy monitoring teams at each centre during the exam period.