The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is working on an online system to ensure that students will be allocated examination centres within eight kilometres of their schools, sources said.
According to sources, the board is in the process of providing all information regarding exam centres for board exams, National Eligibility Test (NET), NEET, JEE main online. For this it had asked for disclosures from schools across the country about the current infrastructure there so that the system is made transparent. Currently there is no system for mapping this information online.
The CBSE is looking at allocating centres within an 8km radius of schools so that students don’t have to travel long distances. For other competitive exam, the closest centre will be allocated, sources said.
“Once we are aware of the infrastructure that is present in the schools we can map it online and this will help us in allocating centres automatically. For instance the system will prompt the official as soon as the 8-10 km radius is crossed. This will ensure they don’t allocate centres that are far away,” said a senior official. Sources said there have been instances in the past where students have been allocated centres at far-flung areas.
The move will also eliminate the need for searching or physically checking the centre before the examination which is a common practice amongst the candidates.
Out of the 14,000 private schools, nearly 2,000 have submitted all the information to the CBSE. This will be used for allocating centres to students. The last date for submitting the information is November 30 and the board is confident of completing the process on time. There are 3,000 schools that have uploaded infrastructure details too. There are 18,000 schools affiliated to the CBSE including Kendriya Vidyalayas.
“This would enable candidates to locate a centre on GIS maps in their mobile phones and to view its facilities,” added the official.
The online system will also map facilities such as the type of furniture, drinking facility, toilets that are present in the schools. “There have been instances in the past where students had to write exam sitting on chairs meant for kindergarten children. Once the institutes inform CBSE about the facilities it will be used to allocate centres,” said a source.
As per the CBSE affiliation rules, each school has to prepare its annual report and has to provide comprehensive information including the details of infrastructure and teachers to the board.
On September 29, the board had asked all the schools under it make mandatory disclosures of all information pertaining to the schools including fees, infrastructure, teachers etc. Under this system once the board has all the data it can use it to plan future projects.