Bhubaneswar: School and Mass Education minister Samir Ranjan Dash on Wednesday released the ‘Pariksha Darpan’ test papers, prepared by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), for the Class X students who will appear at the annual Matric examinations in April.
Talking to media persons, the minister said a total of 6,20,508 ‘Parkisha Darpan’ test papers will be distributed free to each student in all the districts.
As the School and Mass Education Department has decided to provide the test papers to students by February 15, arrangements have been made to send those to the office of the District Education Officer (DEO) by February 12. The DEOs will distribute the test papers among the students through the Block Education Officers (BEOs) and the headmasters.
“The DEOs have been instructed to give priority to distribution of the test papers in remote and border areas of the districts. Similarly, Block Education Officers (BEOs), headmasters of government, aided and private schools and the staff in charge of conducting the Matric examinations have been asked to ensure that the test papers reach each student,” the minister said.
He also informed that about 50,000 test papers will be dispatched to Nuapada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Koraput districts in the first phase from Wednesday. Among the four districts, the test papers will be distributed in the cut-off area of Malkangiri on priority, he pointed out.
“The 700-page test paper comprising possible questions and answers is prepared by the Academic Council of the BSE in accordance with 70% of the syllabus only for this year as per the directive of the Chief Minister to lessen the burden of the students who could not attend the class due to the closure of schools in view of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the minister said adding that the state government has spent about Rs 5 crore towards its publication.
Asked whether the Department has any plan to provide the test papers to Plus II students, he said a meeting was held in this regard. But considering that there are about 550 chapters in each stream, it is not possible to publish a voluminous test paper.
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