Assam: Student misses HSLC exam after admit card lapse, triggers protest in Dhubri

The smooth conduct of the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examinations was disrupted in Assam’s Dhubri district on Tuesday, February 10 after a student was forced to miss the first paper due to the non-issuance of an admit card, triggering protests and scenes of distress outside the Gauripur PC Institution Model Higher Secondary School.

 

As thousands of candidates across the district appeared for the MIL/English examination, chaos erupted at the Gauripur examination centre when one examinee discovered that the mandatory Secondary Education Board of Assam (SEBA) admit card had not been issued. The student, reportedly from an economically disadvantaged family, was barred from entering the examination hall despite reaching the centre on time.

 

The incident sparked immediate outrage among the student’s parents and local residents, who gathered at the school gate demanding accountability from the authorities. The parents alleged that an administrative lapse had cost their child a crucial academic year, describing the HSLC examination as a decisive milestone for students from rural and marginalised backgrounds.

 

Emotions ran high as the student, visibly distressed, stood outside the examination centre while the bell rang to signal the start of the paper. The mother of the candidate broke down, stating that the family had made significant sacrifices to ensure the child’s education, only to see those efforts undone due to what she termed “official negligence”.

 

Local residents soon joined the protest, accusing the school administration and the education department of failing to ensure basic procedural compliance ahead of a statewide examination involving lakhs of students.

 

Officials have yet to clarify whether the missing admit card was the result of a technical glitch in the SEBA online system or a clerical oversight at the school level. However, the incident has raised serious questions over preparedness, coordination and accountability in the conduct of high-stakes public examinations.