No power in Bihar college. Students write class 12 board exam in car headlights
Officials used car headlights to illuminate parts of corridors where scores of students in Motihari town appearing for the Bihar state board’s intermediate (class 12) examination were seated. The board examinations started on 1 February.
BETTIAH: Scores of students in Bihar’s Motihari town were forced to write their intermediate (class 12) exam on Tuesday evening with car headlights as the only source of light. Officials said the examination was supposed to start at 1.45pm but started only at 4.30pm due to what one official described as mismanagement at the local level.
“We are looking into the matter, how and under what circumstances the examination started late at the said centre,” said Sanjay Kumar, the East Champaran district education officer.
An education department official said that schools usually have arrangements for day classes and though the Maharaja Harendra Kishore college has an electricity connection, something clearly did not work.
A district official said the examination was reported to have been delayed due to what he called “improper seating arrangements” leading to protests by parents of the students, prompting the district administration to step in.
“It was getting quite difficult for us to locate our seat due to improper arrangements and finally the examinees chose to sit where they could find a spot. As a result, the commencement of examination was delayed,” said a student on condition of anonymity.
A little over an hour after the examination started, the students complained that it was getting dark. It wasn’t an eventuality the school authorities had provisioned for.
District education officer Sanjay Kumar said a generator was used to power the bulbs.
But there were scores of students seated in the corridors where there were no lighting arrangement.
Officials subsequently parked their cars so that car headlights illuminates at least a part of the corridors where the students were seated.
Kumar said the examination centre superintendent Naveen Kumar Jha has been issued show cause notice and divested of his charge.
East Champaran district magistrate Shirsat Kapil Ashok said he has sought a report and action will be taken against all those responsible for the mismanagement at the examination centre.
Additional chief secretary Sanjay Kumar said he will seek details from the district authorities. Bihar education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary said he has sought a report on the incident. “I will be able to make a comment once I get the reports,” he said.