Retest evokes shock and disbelief
NEW DELHI: Students expressed shock, disbelief and disappointment on Wednesday after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared that two exams will have to be conducted again due to a possible leak of question papers. The announcement that Class 10 maths and Class 12 economics exam will be repeated also forced many to change their holiday plans. Many students and parents, who had believed the exam season to be over, are also left stressed at the prospect of another exam.
After the economics exam on Monday, Vaibhav Garg, a Class 12 commerce student at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, had thought of giving away his books, as it was to be his last paper. By Wednesday evening, he realised he must save his notes and books for the retest.
A Class 12 student expressed his disbelief at the news even as his voice cracked over tears, while another student just seemed dejected and defeated at the prospect of having to attempt another exam.
The first thing that Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, did after the announcement was to call their hostellers who come from outside Delhi and make sure that they had not left town.
Others like Krishna Achutrao, a teacher at IIT Delhi, have had to rethink their travel plans, as his 10th grader daughter was to leave for the UK, for a week-long programme at the Cambridge University on April 6.
“I don’t ever remember in my 36+ years of experience, students ever having to retake the board exams in Delhi like this. Earlier also, the paper may have leaked, but we may have not known. These days, with Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook, informa- tion spreads quickly. There have been leak rumours after almost every exam this year. But I had thought that those were just rumours, as the CBSE ensures security of the papers,” said Manohar Lal, the principal of DPS Mathura Road.
However, students disagreed. “In the accountancy paper, even Sisodia had tweeted about it. But I don’t think the exam should be conducted again, because what is the guarantee that this won’t get leaked too? Students like me need to prepare for their entrance exams also. Instead, CBSE should have taken some stringent action after the reports about the accountancy paper itself and done something to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” said Soumya Jain, a Class 12 commerce student at Mount Abu School who is preparing for her entrance tests for BBM and BBA programmes.
Students, like 10th grader San- skriti Minocha of KR Mangalam World School in Vikaspuri, have also complained about the stress of having to retake an exam on short notice, especially considering that the CBSE is yet to announce the dates for the retest. Counsellors have also taken note of it, with Pooja Bakshi of Tagore International School in Vasant Vihar, saying that students may not be able to perform as well as they did during the first time, just “because of the frustration of giving the paper again.”
However, Sukhmeen Kaur Cheema, a counsellor with CBSE Helpline, said that the only way out is to accept the situation. “I am telling students to just calm down. This is the situation you are in, and there isn’t much you can do to change that. You have to take the exam. But know that you had prepared well before, and now you just need to revise what you have already studied,” she said. My son Aujaswi studied really hard for #CBSE Class X Board Math Exams held today His joy of finishing Board Exams was short lived. He is extremely dejected as the Math paper got leaked & this #Leakinggovt will hold the Exam again I feel sorry for him as lakhs of other students! Give exams on full Syllabus 2.Give exams again (#CBSE syllabus to reduced by half from next year) ARE WE THE ONLY ONE’S TO SUFFER #Cbsepaperleak what is the guarantee that the retest question paper will not be leaked?? How many more attempts the innocent students have to do for the education board and #cbse