Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed unhappiness over the leak of the papers of Class X and Class XII examinations being conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as it has forced the students appearing in the ongoing examinations to re-appear in the same examinations again.
The CBSE on Wednesday announced re-conduct of the Class X Mathematics and Class XII Economics examinations following reports that the papers were leaked.
The leak of CBSE-conducted examinations, just a month after the paper leak in SSC examinations, has drawn flak from various quarters including the opposition Congress which has attacked the government for mismanagement.
Quoting sources, an NDTV report published on Thursday, stated, “PM Modi dialled the education minister after the Central education board CBSE decided to set fresh tests for Class 10 Maths and Class 12 Economics following reports of a leak of question papers.”
The NDTV report also stated that the paper leak allegations surfaced on Sunday, a day before the Class XII Economics exam, when many students found a hand-written question paper making the rounds on WhatsApp. The next day, they found a huge overlap when they saw the actual question paper. Those who took the exam, however, said the paper was not too difficult.
“PM Modi has always given a lot of importance to fair examinations,” said Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar.
As per reports, the hand written question paper circulated on Whatsapp had a huge overlap with the actual one.
Union Minister Javadekar while admitting that parts of the paper were leaked on WhatsApp, said that the Central government has deployed a special Delhi Police team to probe into the leak. “We are sure that whoever has done this will be caught soon. They have no right to play with the lives of children,” said Javadekar.
The union Minister also said that in the future, the government will devise a method to avoid paper leaks with the help of technology. He added, “I just want to tell the parents and children that it is extremely unfortunate that this incident happened.”
A total of four persons were reportedly arrested on Thursday morning in the paper leak case of SSC exam.
Coming down heavily on the BJP-led government, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on his Twitter handle stated, “Aabki baar paper leak Sarkar (Go for a paper leak government)”. The Hindi tweet read, “First, the SSC paper leak put a question mark on the future of 2 million young people and now the CBSE tenth and twelfth paper leaked! The future of millions of youth in jeopardy!”
The TOI in a report published on Thursday stated that Union Minister Prakash Javadekar called the CBSE exam paper leaks ‘unfortunate’ and promised speedy arrests in the matter.
“This is a very unfortunate development. I understand the pain the parents and students have to go through. Whoever is involved in the paper leak will not be spared, police will soon arrest the culprits,” Javadekar said while addressing the media.
“Even I could not sleep, I am also a parent,” the minister empathized, stated the TOI report
“We must ensure examinations are carried out without any breach,” he stressed.