No breakthrough in leak cases
1 April 2018 7:02 PM GMT
The leak of question papers of prestigious exams like the final CBSE exams for Class X and Class XII and Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exams have eroded the faith of students in the country's premier examination systems. The students, who may have to take the examination afresh, are protesting across the country. While the government has announced a fresh date for Class XII economics paper, the reexamination of Class X maths has still not been finalised. The Education Secretary in a press conference had said that the Class X math examination will be conducted in July in Delhi and Haryana. The Education Department believes that the leaked Class X math paper was in circulation only in Delhi and Haryana. However, the decision to hold reexamination of some papers for Class X and Class XII have put the students through extreme agony and frustration. Instead of relaxing after the gruelling examination schedule, the students have to keep preparing for the papers for which reexamination has been announced. The police are continuing with their investigation to determine the source of the question paper leak but they have not achieved any major success in their investigation so far.
However, in a major police action, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Delhi Police probing the CBSE question paper leak raided the CBSE headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday night. The police began the raid at around 9.30 pm and searched the 11 floors of the CBSE building for two-and-a-half hours. Before this, the SIT detained a school principal and a CBSE staffer and questioned them. Based on the information obtained from them, the SIT decided to raid the CBSE headquarters. The police also called some CBSE staffers to the headquarters for questioning. According to the police, some important data related to the paper leak was collected in the raid and they are close to unraveling the truth about the paper leak. The police have also taken into custody the 'whistle blower' who had sent an email to CBSE chairperson from Punjab. The police are questioning him to ascertain the source of the leak. Meanwhile, there were further revelations about the likely leak of Hindi elective and Political Science of Calss XII. The examination for these two papers is scheduled for April 2 and April 6 respectively. However, the CBSE dismissed these claims and said that the papers in circulation on soical media are in fact of the last year. The Secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Anil Swarup, claimed that the Hindi elective Class XII paper being shown on social media is of last year's compartmental examination. He also advised the students not to take the rumours being spread on social media seriously. Amid protests by students across the country against the leak of question papers and the CBSE's decision to conduct a retest in Class X mathematics and Class XII economics papers, the matter reached the Supreme Court. Challenging the CBSE decision to conduct retests for the leaked papers, three separate petitions were filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday. The petitioners have termed the CBSE order arbitrary and unconstitutional and asked the Supreme Court to cancel the reexamination. They have asked the SC to order a CBI probe into the matter and ask the CBSE to give the results based on the examinations already having taken place. One petitioner has asked the SC to order the payment of a compensation of Rs one lakh to each of the Class XII students. The Supreme Court may hear these petitions next week. Another petition claimed that this year 16.38 lakh Class X students and 11.86 lakh Class XII students have taken the examination. The CBSE's arbitrary decisions to hold reexaminations in some papers violate the fundamental rights of the students. Because of some students, all the students are being penalised. He also claimed that the main culprits involved in the paper leak have not been arrested. In this situation, what is the guarantee that the question paper will not be leaked again, they asked.
Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 students from eight states took out a protest march in Lutyens' Delhi against the paper leak of SSC examination. Marching towards the Ministry of Human Resource Development, they broke the police barricade, resulting in mild use of force by the police.
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