No Class 10 maths retest, says govt

ONLY A FEW MAY HAVE BENEFITED, NO NEED TO PUT 1.4 MILLION THROUGH A RETEST, SAY GOVT OFFICIALS

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided not to conduct a retest for the Class 10 mathematics exam after a random evaluation of answer sheets showed that the performance of students had not improved even though there was evidence of the question paper leaking on social media, senior government officials said on Tuesday.

Officials argued that a random analysis of answer sheets showed that the leak was “limited” and there was no need to put 1.4 million students through a retest because of a breach from which only a few may have benefited. The CBSE had earlier announced that if needed, the math exam would be held again sometime in July after reports of leaks had emerged in Delhi, Haryana and Jharkhand.

The Class 12 economics exam, however, will be conducted again on April 25.

“We have analysed the impact of the (Class 10 math) answer sheets which clearly indicates that the performance this year despite the limited leak has gone down. This shows that there is no change in the outcome so we decided to take a decision in the overall interest of the 14 lakh students, not to go for a retest. In any case, implications of Class 10 exams in terms of future of the child are not as grave as in Class 12. Hence, it was not found advisable to put these many children to inconvenience for no fault of theirs,” Anil Swarup, secretary (school education) in the HRD ministry, said on Tuesday.

A government official said on condition of anonymity that the findings had shown that the pass percentage in the Delhi region was 89.36 this year compared to last year’s 93.62.