RAWALPINDI, May 5: With the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) annual examinations starting from Tuesday (May 8), the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Rawalpindi has constituted a special squad to monitor the exams.

The board also declared Sunday as a working day for its officials till the end of the exams for facilitating the students.

As many as 62,403 students of the second year will appear in the exams for which 189 centres have been set up across the division while students of first-year, numbering 50,446, will attempt their papers after conclusion of the Part-II exams on May 28.

Learning a lesson from last year’s students’ protest against non-receipt of roll number slips and other issues, the board management has taken some more steps to hold the exams in a smooth way. During the protest last year, the students set the board building on fire.

The special squad constituted this year consists of teachers of good repute and retired academicians for supervising the exams.

According to officials, entry of irrelevant people to the examination halls has been banned for discouraging cheating while generators would be on a standby to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the papers.

“We have completed all the essential arrangements to facilitate the students.

We are hopeful that the candidates will be satisfied with the steps this time,” said Arsalan Cheema, the spokesman for BISE, while talking to Dawn on Saturday.