To curb cheating, students won’t get papers 10 mins early

MUMBAI: The State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, after an important meeting held on Friday, has withdrawn the decision to distribute question papers to students 10 minutes earlier during class 10 and 12 examinations.

Students will receive question papers at 11am (instead of 10.50am) for the morning session and at 3pm (rather than 2.50pm) for the afternoon session.

Anuradha Oak, secretary of the board, said, “This decision came out of a meeting between education and police officials. We have noticed some incidents in the last four to five years, such as rumours of question papers going viral on mobile phones. As this exam is an important phase in the life of a student, parents and society keep a close eye on this exam. Such rumours cause consternation among the examinees.” She also added, “In the past, it has been noticed that the contents of the question paper were found in the mobile phone of the student who reached the examination centre after the scheduled time due to the fact that the question papers were distributed to the examinees 10 minutes before the commencement of the examination in the examination hall. In order to prevent such incidents and conduct the examination in a fair, fear-free, and copy-free environment, the facility of distributing question papers ten minutes before the scheduled time of the examination is being cancelled for the coming (FebruaryMarch 2023) examination.”

To conduct the examination in a free environment, a highlevel meeting between the board officials, the state education secretary, education commissioner, and police officials took place in Mumbai. During the meeting, it was decided that, in addition to the flying squads appointed by district education officials, the district collector, police commissioner/superintendent, and CEO will be appointed.

Likewise, the runner who takes the question paper to the examination centre and brings back the answer sheets too will be tracked by using the GPS,” said Oak.

Meanwhile, parents are not happy with this decision. A parent from Dadar said, “This decision has been taken just a few days before the exams. In all the practice exams that the students have taken so far, the question papers were given 10 minutes before. Now this change that happens at regular intervals can be difficult for students. Due to this, the board should implement this change from next year.”