‘Kids were in exam hall for 5 hrs’ Announce decision on retest of maths exam for Class 10: HC tells CBSE
CONFUSION Many govt schools say they got question papers late, CBSE officials quash reports as ‘just rumours’
NEW DELHI: When the bell finally rang at 2.45pm notifying the end of the board exams on Monday at a northeast Delhi government school, there was a resounding whoop in the examination hall.
“The students had been inside the rooms for almost five hours. That’s why they were excited. Even movies last three hours at most with an i nterval i n between,” said the vice-principal of the school, who did not wish to be identified.
Teachers in at least nine government schools said there were delays and that the exam, scheduled to begin at 10.30am, started as late as 11.45 am allegedly due to delays in procuring the question papers.
After the recent paper leaks, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had announced that it would send schools an encrypted link, from which they would have to download and print the question papers themselves.
However, the CBSE changed its decision on Sunday evening and sent a communication to schools that they would receive the printed papers as usual.
CBSE officials refused to comment on why they decided to change their strategy, saying they wanted to catch “the people leaking the paper by surprise.”
Some schools, such as the one in northeast Delhi, said that they hadn’t received any information from CBSE that they were no longer required to print the papers themselves.
Many private schools, however, maintained that they faced just 5-10 minute delays in starting the exam.
“The source of examination paper is not very far from our school so there wasn’t much delay. However, there was some delay in giving us the papers due to which we got the papers 15 minutes later than the scheduled time. We distributed the paper at 10.30 am instead of 10.15 am,” said Manohar Lal, principal Delhi Public School, Mathura Road. Another principal of a private school, who wished to remain unidentified, said that their school started the exam just five minutes late.
CBSE officials said that any reports about exorbitant delays were just rumours. “Allegations that CBSE went back to its usual practice of delivering printed papers to schools due to glitches, were only ‘rumours and lies’ being spread by Delhi government schools,” an official, who did not wish to be identified.
However, officials at the Directorate of Education (DOE) in Delhi denied the charges. “We always try to cooperate with them (CBSE) in any which way possible,” said a senior official, who was not authorised to speak to the media.
Though the exam should start at 10.30am, the vice-principal at the northeast Delhi government school said they got the papers only around 11am.
The school took about 30 minutes to distribute them to students and so the exam finally began at 11:45am.
In Rohini, the exams started at 11.30am at the Government Sarvodaya Co-ed Vidyalaya, Sector 8 as the school received the question papers around 10.30am, according to Awadesh Kumar Jha, head of the school. At another government school in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri, the examination started at 10.45am.
“Even we rented a larger printer to print the papers. But this would print 1,800 pages per hour. We had 900 students attempting the exam on Monday, and each question paper is around 10 pages long. So to print 9,000 pages, we would have taken almost five hours,” said a government school vice-principal. NEWDELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought to know from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) whether it plans to re-conduct the Class 20 maths examination which was leaked last week.
A bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar also issued notices to the Centre, CBSE and the Delhi Police asking them to file a status report on a plea which sought a court-monitored probe into the question paper leaks.
The court’s query was issued after the CBSE informed the bench that it was trying to ascertain the magnitude of the leaks and whether it requires a re-test.
The brief hearing took place after the matter was mentioned by advocate Ashok Agarwal on behalf of NGO Social Jurist before the bench which agreed to hear the case.
The bench asked the exam regulator how it was willing to wait till July to re-conduct the test and keep the students on “tenterhooks”. The court also observed that the lack in clarity over the re-test was akin to keeping “a sword hanging over the heads” of the students.
The bench directed the CBSE to take a decision on the issue and fixed April 16 as the next date of hearing.
The plea also sought that the CBSE be directed to consider granting marks “liberally” to the students for the re-examinations.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a bunch of pleas challenging the re-examination by the CBSE on Wednesday.