On the second day of the Madhyamik examination, over 200 students at the Howrah Hat High School in south Howrah had to write their papers in candle and emergency lights. The classrooms plunged into darkness as the lights went out barely 10 minutes before the students were to begin writing.

According to the students, the lights went out at 11.50 am. The examination starts at 11.45 am, and they get a grace time of 15 minutes to read the question paper. They begin writing from noon.

At the examination centre, 212 students from three schools — Ram Krishna Sikhalaya, Tandel Bagan High School and IR Belilious Institution — appeared in the second paper of the Hindi/Bengali exam.

Abdul Rahim, the centre observer said the students were provided all possible help by the school authorities.

Some guardians, however, complained that their children could not write properly in the dim light. The school is surrounded by buildings from all sides and the rooms where the exams were conducted were dark, they claimed.

“The examination was conducted in the school as per schedule and the students were not allotted extra time to write their papers,” said Swapan Sarkar, secretary of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. Sarkar added that the Board knew about the incident. “We informed the CESC, but because of a local cable fault it took time,” Sarkar added.

In a separate incident, a girl student who was to appear in the examination at the Netaji Nagar Balika Vidyalaya fell ill. She was taken to Bangur Hospital, where she wrote her exam under an invigilation officer, informed board officials.