Gujarat State Examination Board exams: Helpline getting 200 calls a day

The toll-free helpline lau-nched by the Gujarat State Examination Board to guide and counsel students appearing for upcoming board exams has received nearly 1300 calls in a week.

This is way too less a number as compared to last year. In first week of the launch of the helpline last year, 5000 calls were received, of which the maximum call for a day was recorded at 1,200.

This time, maximum calls recorded on a day has been recorded has reached 244. "A total of 1270 calls have been received ffrom February 19 to February 25. February 25 recorded the lowest with just 66 calls but it could be as it was a Sunday," BN Rajbhor, who is heading helpline team, said.

RR Thakkar, former deputy chairman of the board said, "The numbers seem quite low this time and board officials need to delve deep into the reason. Maybe, one needs to look at the team of experts who are handling the calls. During my time, the helpline team was handled by KD Rawal along with domain expert counselor, two psychologists and an educationists. Their aggression to reach out to students was commendable." Last year, the maximum calls in first week was related to online marks whereas other reasons include issues related to hall-ticket, exam phobia, subject, expert tips, presentation, complaint, NEET/GUJCET, career guidance, etc.

While the board announced that the helpline 18002335500 will be operational from February 19 till March 28 and students or parents will be able to call on the number from 10.00 am to 6.30 pm, when dna cross-checked by calling on the helpline, they said it is operational only till 6.00 pm.

SSC and HSC exams will begin from March 12. While the examination for SSC will go on till March 23, for Science and general stream HSC, the exams will continue till March 28. While the registration for boards is going on, approximately 17 to 18 lakh students will appear in boards this year that includes 10 lakh for SSC, 5.5 lakh for general stream and nearly 1.5 lakh for Science stream.

EXAM NUMBERS

• In previous boards, 17.59 lakh students took the class X and XII examinations.
   
• Around 178 jail inmates had also taken the board exams, and arrangements for them were made in prisons.