Guwahati, Sept 13: Board of Secondary Education Assam (SEBA) has decided to introduce OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets for answering objective-type questions in the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examinations, proposed to be held from the first week of February 2024.
In this regard, a notification has been issued to the inspectors of schools, informing them that 50 percent of the total marks would be objective-type questions carrying one mark each in case of core subjects such as English (CI), General Mathematics (C2), General Science (C3) and Social Science (C4).
“For the remaining 50 percent questions, separate answer scripts containing 16 pages will be provided like before,” the notification issued by the SEBA secretary, read.
“It is felt that students are already familiar with the OMR system since this system has been continuously used for evaluation of students in Gunotsav. As the OMR will be personalised there will be one OMR sheet in the name of a particular candidate,” the notification read.
The board also informed the inspectors of schools that each school should take note of the eligibility criteria of the students for appearing in the HSLC examination, 2024.
According to the criteria, students who appeared in Unit Test- 1 (except those students who were unsuccessful in HSLC Examination, 2023) and are regularly attending in classes, will be allowed to appear in subsequent examinations like Unit Test-II, Half Yearly Examination and Pre-Board Examination.
“Unsuccessful candidates of HSLC Examination 2023, who have been re-admitted to Class-X but could not appear in Unit Test-1, have to attend classes regularly and also appear in Half Yearly Examination, Unit Test-II and Pre-Board Examination,” the SEBA secretary stated in the notification.
The board has also asked the inspectors of schools to inform all the candidates, well in advance, about the alterations made in the HSLC Exam 2024.
The board further reiterated that the procedure of handling of sealed box/cartons of confidential material would remain unchanged and that the same procedure in regard to the rescheduled HSLC Examination 2023 and HSLC (Compartmental) Examination, 2023 would be followed.
“Thus, sealed cartons/ boxes of confidential material cannot be opened in transit or in the strong room of police station/ police outpost. Those will be opened only in the sorting room of the examination centre. The small packets of confidential material containing 10 question papers each will be opened only in the examination hall/room,” the board’s secretary stated.