EOI, DARJEELING, FEBRUARY 10, 2024 : More than 4,000 students are appearing for the Madhyamik Examination in the Darjeeling hills. They are braving the chilly conditions because the electricity bill for last year’s examination has not been paid, while some centres did not have connection points for the room heaters on Monday.
On Monday, the temperature hovered around 9 to 14 degrees centigrade, and students, especially the girl children, found it inconvenient due to the nature of their school uniforms. In the hills, the month of February usually remains very cold and chilly, unlike in the plains where it is warmer.
“It was very cold today and has remained so for the last few days. I thought we would be provided room heaters, but when we reached our centre, we found there were no such arrangements,” said Pushpa Rai, whose centre was at the Municipal Boys’ High School in Darjeeling.
Yangchen Sherpa of Nepali Girls’ Higher Secondary, whose centre was at St. Michael’s School, found it tough to write her examination paper because of the cold. “No heater was provided in our centre. It was very chilly today. Also, our uniform is not very cold-resistant. It was tough to write our papers, and sometimes I lost concentration. School officials should have made prior arrangements to provide us with room heaters,” she said.
Senior school officials admitted that due to technical issues, room heaters could not be provided to the students in some centres. “Room heaters have been provided in every centre. For a room heater to function, a three-phase electricity connection point is required. It seems some centres did not have the required connection points. We have taken note and will try and solve the issue, hopefully by tomorrow,” an official not wishing to be named said.
This year, there are 4,809 students appearing for the Madhyamik examination from 36 examination centres located in the Darjeeling District (Hills). The number of boy students is 2,400, while the number of girl students is 2,409, which, according to officials, is a fall from the previous year. The examination starts from 10:45 a.m. in the morning and will be held till 2 p.m. every day.
On the query of the pending electricity bill, the official said it was unfortunate. “Several schools which were designated as centres for the Madhyamik examination last year are yet to pay their electricity bill, one of the reasons being getting no financial assistance from the state government,” the official said.
The official, however, asserted that except for examination centres located in and around Darjeeling town, other centres had no issues and room heaters were provided to the students. The Madhyamik examinations will be held till February 22.
