Supervisors have been advised by the Ministry of Education that no kava will be served when an examination is in progress.

During a one-day workshop for chief  examination supervisors’ at Khastriya Hall yesterday, Amitesh Chandra reminded participants to follow guidelines given by the ministry.

Mr Chandra said as per the guidelines, all schools should begin and end examinations at the same time.

“No extra time should be given to students sitting for Year Six, Year Eight, Year 10, Year 12 and Year 13 examinations,” Mr Chandra said.

“There are about 103 chief supervisors in the Northern Division and a few are new to this field of work.”

The objective of this workshop is to educate supervisors on the importance of their roles and responsibilities during national examinations.

To ensure that the integrity of examinations is upheld and enhanced.

The ministry is also training them what to do before and after examinations such as how to organise exam papers.

There are some areas where the ministry is trying to create awareness such as for chief supervisors to double check students’ index numbers.

“This is the most important element used to get correct marks and to ratify when problems are raised by students,” Mr Chandra said.

“We have told supervisors time and again to ensure that students write down their correct index number.”

During the examination the ratio is one supervisor to 30 students, excluding the chief supervisor.

“The packets of question papers shall be opened no earlier than 10 minutes before the starting time for each paper by the chief supervisor,” he said.

This will be done in the presence of the head teacher or principal or his or her representative and a member of the community of parents and teachers.

These three parties will together certify the security of examination papers before they are opened.

The head teacher, principal or a senior teacher is to be present at the start of each examination session to assist the chief supervisor in the identification of each candidate.

“No one, other than the supervisors or education officers are to enter or be in an examination room during an examination,” Mr Chandra said.

Every examination centre or school will be allocated a chief supervisor.

They will be responsible for the conduct of the examination on the examination day and for all other preparatory and post-exam functions as outlined in The General Instructions for Chief Supervisors.

“The appointment of practising teachers as chief supervisors should be avoided unless it is impossible to find other suitable people, especially in isolated rural areas,” Mr Chandra said.

Edited by Percy Kean

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