Students stage protest outside CBSE office

New Delhi: Scores of students assembled at the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) office and staged a protest against the paper leak. They raised slogans against the examination board and said that they were suffering because of CBSE's mistakes. However, the second day of the protest against the CBSE decision to hold re-examination was dominated by college students' unions.

Four members of Congress' students wing NSUI along with the agitating students presented a set of demand to the HRD minister Prakash Javadekar. The suggestion of NSUI members that all students unwilling to appear for a re-exam should be given an 'average best score' was opposed by some of the students.

"Why should I get the same average score as others," asked an angry Arvind, a class XII student from RP Vidyalaya. "Mark me according to how I have performed. Whether I have attempted questions worth 40 marks or 70 marks," he said. "This isn't our demand. We heard it from others when we got here," said his companion Yogesh from the same school.

Anividh and Sushant, along with a group of their classmates, had come to the central Delhi from Azadpur Mandi for the protest, only to run into a contingent led by the National Students Union of India (NSUI).

The other demands of the NSUI members included sacking of the CBSE chairperson. They also said that a retest date should only be set for those who want to write the exam today and the rest should be given an 'average

best score'.

"I sort of organised the protest," said the student from Columbia school. "And, I went with the NSUI members because they were very nice." The minister, he said, thought that the idea of the average score was a good one. For many school students this is the first time they've to come out against a perceived injustice.

Khushi Sodhi, who came with three other girls from St. Anthony's, said her parents made her go to fight for what she thinks is right.