SSC exams: Messed up hall tickets cause chaos on Day 1 in Mumbai

Even as the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination began yesterday, several students appeared for the first paper with hall-tickets full of mistakes, leading to confusion over their examination centre. The lack of clarity over the timetable added to the chaos.

After the paper, while several students were seen discussing the papers with their friends, we spotted this lone ranger. Pics/Nimesh Dave

While the board was informed about the mistakes after schools observed them, the students did not receive new hall-tickets. Instead, school principals were asked to make corrections on the hall-tickets with a red pen and their signature and stamp for validity.

No new hall-tickets
A teacher from a Goregaon-based school said, "There were many students in our school whose hall-tickets had mistakes in either the name, exam centre etc. After the board was informed, they asked for the corrected information. But new hall-tickets never arrived."

Who was happily checking his book riding backwards on a bike

"School principals were allowed to make changes after re-inquiring with the board on what needs to be done about the mistakes. We made the correction for our students. Being an exam centre, we also saw students who came for the exam with hall-tickets corrected in red-ink."

While the board was informed about the mistakes after schools observed them, the students did not receive new hall tickets and had to appear for the exams with tickets corrected with a red pen by their school principal

An in-charge of an exam centre in Andheri said, "There were many students who had hall-tickets with corrections in red-ink. But when we inquired with the board about it, we were asked to verify the hall-tickets and allow these candidates to appear for the examination."

Panic over timetable
Additional chaos on day one was regarding confusion over the timetable. Helplines received several frantic calls from students and parents to verify the timetable. The first paper yesterday was for students having vernacular languages as their first language. Several English medium students who have the paper of the same language for their second or third language exam, got confused and reached the examination centre, after making panic calls to state board help-line.

A police inspector at the Sri Ma English High School in Thane wishes a student good luck for the exam. Pic/Sameer Markande

Shrikant Shingare, who was attending the state board help-line on Tuesday morning, told mid-day, "Several students and parents were calling frantically to know about their exam. The main paper today was Marathi, for students from Marathi medium. But since English and other medium students also have Marathi as a subject, they got confused. They have their Marathi paper much later. This just shows the communication gap between schools and students."

Study the timetable: SSC Board
Duttatray Jagtap, chairman of the Mumbai division of state board, said, "There weren't many cases of mistakes in hall tickets. School principals were asked to make appropriate changes. We ensured that candidates did not suffer. No issues were reported. The first paper was conducted smoothly." Regarding the confusion he said, "Schools and parents need to study the timetable before getting panicky."