Chennai: This year for board exams, Class XII students of govt, aided and private matriculation schools will receive A4-sized log books with large fonts instead of the traditional ones with tiny fonts, school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi announced on Monday.“Until last year, students faced difficulties in reading the values on the log books. The new A4-sized books will help them read the values clearly. We’ve also made arrangements for accountancy students to be allowed to bring ordinary calculators,” the minister told reporters after chairing a review meeting with officials.
To address concerns of subject teachers being appointed as scribes of differently abled candidates, the minister said only second-year students studying in arts and polytechnic colleges or pursuing B Ed, teachers of DIET, or ‘Illam Thedi Kalvi’ staff will be assigned as scribes from this year. A separate question paper packet containing five papers will be introduced for differently abled candidates taking help from scribes, to improve confidentiality.According to data from the Directorate of Government Exams, about 8.2 lakh candidates will take the Class XII exam from March 2 to 26 at 3,412 centres. Another 9.09 lakh will take the SSLC exam from March 11 to April 6 at 4,219 centres across the state this year. As many as 25,051 candidates appear for the Class XI (arrear) exams from March 3 to 27 at 2,615 centres. Among prison inmates, 281 will take the Class XII exam and 395 will appear for the SSLC exam. “More than 49,000 teachers will be engaged in exam duty, and 4,900 flying squad personnel will be deployed to prevent malpractice,” the minister said. Officials have been asked to keep a tab on the number of absentees and instances of malpractice every day. Centres housing question papers will be under CCTV surveillance.
