Bhubaneswar: Authorities on Saturday said steps will be taken to address the mistake after several examinees claimed that a 4-mark question was missing in the science paper of the ongoing Class X board examinations.
After the exam ended at 11:30 am, some students coming out of the examination centres alleged that a question carrying four marks was missing from set C of the science paper. “At the end of the exam, I found that one question was missing from set C of the paper. We informed the invigilator of our exam centre immediately,” said a student from Jeypore.
Invigilators at the exam centres immediately informed Board of Secondary Education (BSE) regarding the issue. The board took cognisance of the issue and checked the set C question paper thoroughly, before confirming the discrepancy.
BSE president Srikanta Tarai said that more than 5.2 lakh students are appearing for the matric exam this year. “We printed around six lakh question papers for students appearing for the science paper on Saturday. It includes sets A, B, C and D. The problem occurred in only 10% of the set C question papers. If the number of set C question papers is 1.5 lakh, the problem occurred in around 15,000 papers,” he added.
He said the issue will be discussed by the examination committee of BSE. “The subject experts and officials in the committee will take a suitable decision for the benefit of students. There are rules, regulations and guidelines to address such kinds of issues. It will not create any problems for students,” he added.
Tarai said the science paper has two parts — objective and subjective — of 50 marks each. The missing question was in the subjective part of set C questions. “We will issue a showcause to the printer about the mistake. The printer said that a virus created a technical glitch in a plate. As a result, one of the questions in the set C was not printed,” he added.