Poor Seating Arrangements, No Power: Bihar Students Take Exams Under Car Headlights

An exam centre in Bihar's Motihari town witnessed a strange incident on Tuesday evening, February 1, where students were forced to take their Class 12 examinations with the help of car headlights. The inconvenience was faced by nearly 500 students of Maharaj Harendra Kishore College.

The exam scheduled to start at 1:45 pm and end by 5:00 pm was delayed further to 4:30 pm due to mismanagement at the local level, an official told Hindustan Times.

Delay Due To Poor Seating Arrangement

The management could not complete the seating arrangements for hundreds of students on time, which led to the delay in commencement of a Hindi paper of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB).

Many were compelled to sit outside the classroom, in the balcony and other premises of the college. A student told HT that it was challenging for them to locate their seats, consuming all the exam time.

After an hour of the examination, students complained of low light and could not write further.

No Source Of Light

Reportedly, students sitting inside somehow wrote their papers in the poor lights of bulbs, the ones sitting outside were hardly left with any. The authorities put up light from the headlights of four-wheelers parked inside the campus.

The outrage among students, parents and guardians forced the local administration to step in. The Chhatauni police station with help from the administration used generators to power the bulbs.

Probe Ordered

The images and videos of the incident were widely circulated on social media and drew massive criticism from netizens.

Motihari sub-divisional officer Suman Saurabh Yadav said the centre superintendent was responsible for keeping the seating arrangements and other services up to date but failed to do so.

Taking cognisance of the matter, the district administration removed the centre superintendent and ordered an inquiry to unearth the reason behind the lapse.

Speaking to HT, East Champaran district education officer Sanjay Kumar confirmed that the department was probing what led to the delay in conducting the exam and the mismanagement on the officials' part.

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