Bhubaneswar: The Annual Higher Secondary Examination (AHSE), conducted by Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), commenced smoothly across the state on Wednesday, with no cases of malpractice or any other irregularity reported from the 1,364 exam centres.Controller of examinations Prasant Kumar Parida said that 96,929 science students had registered to appear for the modern Indian language paper on the first day, of whom 157 were marked absent. Students were frisked before being allowed into the exam centres, and they were asked to remove their watches prior to entering the halls.
A group of students pointed out an alleged discrepancy in the question paper. “In Set B, an error was found in question no. 15, which stated, ‘Based on the prescribed poem, answer all the following questions in one sentence each’, but nowhere in the entire paper is the poem provided,” a student said. Parida, however, refuted the allegation and said that providing the poem was not necessary, as students who studied it knew the questions and their answers.Earlier in the day, school and mass education minister Nityananda Gond visited some exam centres, including the Ramadevi Junior College here, and expressed satisfaction with the security provisions. Speaking to mediapersons, he said the examination was being held under tight security, with AI-powered CCTV cameras being used at all stages, from exam centres to exam management hubs where question papers are being stored. “The CHSE team is closely monitoring the live CCTV feed of the entire process at the central monitoring facility at its office to ensure the exam is free of any discrepancy,” he said.CM Mohan Charan Majhi wished all the students luck and urged them not to take the exams as a burden. “Examinations are a beautiful expression of your knowledge and hard work. There is no need to carry any fear or pressure in your mind regarding them. Remember, it is not pressure but patience that brings out your best performance. When you approach examinations with calmness and composure, your efforts truly shine,” he wrote on X.As many as 4,01,623 students are appearing for the Plus II papers this year. Students of humanities and commerce streams will appear for the modern Indian language paper on Friday. On Thursday, around 5,000 students of vocational stream will appear for the exam.
