Mumbai, Feb 28 (MD): The HSC exams are on and the divisional board helpline numbers are continuously ringing. But many problems at examination centres don’t necessarily reach the helpline, leaving students worried.

Recently, some students at a Jogeshwari exam centre ended up making errors while pasting the hologram and bar code stickers on their answer sheets, because the invigilator was allegedly unaware of the process.

While officials at the Mumbai divisional board office were mum about this issue, parents said that it was the fault of the exam invigilator. “As per the rules, class invigilators are supposed to hand over bar code and hologram stickers to students by the end of the examination.

Students are supposed to stick the bar code sticker first, and then cover their answer sheet with a hologram sticker. However, in this school the process was reversed as students got confused and the invigilator was not aware of the process,” said a member of the board.

A complaint was made to the exam centre in-charge but the same was not forwarded to the divisional board office. “The exam centre in-charge spoke to officials at the board office and was allowed to make changes to the answer sheets, so as to avoid any problems during assessment of the answer sheets,” added the member.

Months before board exams are to begin, teachers who are chosen to be exam invigilators, examiners, and moderators undergo training to understand the process. Hologram stickers and bar codes were introduced so as to avoid revealing the identity of the student and to ensure unbiased evaluation as well.

Any mistake in this process can lead to the answer sheet being sent for further scrutiny and not being assessed. “Training is undertaken regularly, year after year, to make sure that no problems crop up during exams.

The process of sticking bar codes and hologram stickers is not new and we usually give the responsibility of invigilation only to senior and experienced teachers,” said S Chandekar, divisional board secretary.

He added that while for this year the training is over, an attempt can be made to recapitulate the rules to members since SSC exams are yet to begin. “The board is currently busy with the HSC exams so we cannot hold a training session.

But we will inform all board members to remind their teachers of their jobs, roles and responsibilities properly,” he added. SSC examinations are scheduled to begin on March 3.