Minister for Education, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari today chaired a high level meeting to review the arrangements for smooth and fair conduct of examinations being conducted in the state by the J&K State Board of School Education (JKBOSE).The Minister asked for maintaining close synergy among JKBOSE, School Education department, district, divisional and Police administrations to evolve an effective monitoring system to prevent any outside interference in the premises of exam centres. Pertinently, while board exams for class 10th (private annual) are going on in Kashmir division, the annual exams for class 12th and class 10th for Jammu (Summer zone) are starting from Feb 27 and March 2, respectively.The meeting was attended by Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Pawan Kotwal, Commissioner/ Secretary School Education, Shaleen Kabra, IG Police Jammu, S D Singh Jamwal, JKBOSE chairman Prof Zahoor Ahmed Chatt, Director School Education, Jammu, Babila Rakhwal and other senior officers. The Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir Baseer Ahmed Khan, IGP Kashmir, S J M Geelani and deputy commissioners of all districts of Kashmir and Jammu divisions attended the meeting through video Conference.The Minister reviewed arrangements made by School education department, JKBOSE, divisional and district administrations, and asked them to conjoin their efforts to conduct the examinations in a fair manner. He specially called for fixing responsibility for any type of lapse by all agencies involved in the massive exercise.
It was informed in the meeting that for the first time all centres for board exams (summer zone) have been established only in government schools as a part of preventive measure, while the exams for both class 12 and class 10 will be held in the afternoon session to avoid disruption of academic activities in the schools where exams are being conducted. “As per practice started previous year, Deputy Commissioners are provided lists of officials by JKBOSE for selection of invigilator staff- a measure taken to ensure that credible people are involved in the process, while the district administration will also constitute inspection squads for surprise checking” the meeting was told.The district administrations were also directed to make elaborate arrangements of safe drinking water, sitting arrangements and light- as in many schools the centers are established for the first time.The Minister while reviewing the list of centres, directed for paying special focus on the centres tagged as sensitive and hyper sensitive. He also sought details of special measures taken to prevent outside interference in such centres. Reviewing the measures taken in Kashmir following the complaints of mass copying, the Minister was told that the Haran Siabogh centre in Budgam was immediately shifted and next exam was conducted at the new place after the complaint of outside interference was received. The Minister asked the deputy commissioners and SSPs of both divisions to take action strict action within no moment on receiving complaint from any centre.