This year, UP Government launched a major crackdown on open mass-cheating in exams, something which has long been the bane of UP’s education system. Because of these steps, around 10 lakh students of the 66 lakh-odd who registered this year for the UP Board exams dropped out.
In response to this a news channel reported: “Further speaking on the issue, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said that ...Out of all the students, I believe that there will be 10% who wouldn’t be doing cheating in exams, but a little bit of cheating, everybody does … so would you call that cheating? (I concede that this was much better then what his father Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav had said on rape accused - 'ladkon se galti ho jaati hai')
The Congress and other “intellectuals” who stand by such secular parties and leaders are hilariously passing comment on the governance on the basis of CBSE paper leaks. This, despite Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announcing re-examination for the Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics due to the leaks.
Any re-examination leads to dejection and anger, and not surprisingly this is the case here too. The dejection in India is not only over re-examination but also for a lot of other factors.
In India train and airways reservation, holidays and marriages are planned around exam dates. When the exam is rescheduled it is not only the student who suffers but the entire family and even the extended family pays a price.
However, this is not the first instance when Board exam papers conducted by CBSE have been leaked.
• Krishnan Raju, principal of government senior secondary school at Lapati, Rashid, an executive engineer of the Andamans PWD, and Vijayan, a forest ranger, were arrested on charges of leaking the question papers of Science and Mathematics of Class XII for the CBSE exams in 2011. A radio operator, MP Arun for his alleged involvement in the question paper leak scandal of the CBSE Board exams was dismissed by Director General of Police, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Before this, in 2006, the police in Panipat, Haryana while searching hotel and dhaba for information related to the Varanasi blasts, found the leaked question paper of CBSE on Business Studies.
But what is important this time is the fact that few in media and opposition political parties are more upset over re-examination as compared to students.
Paper leak is a regular phenomenon as far as CBSE is concerned. One of the reasons for this is lack of punishments for the culprits. In a country where political parties do everything to win election, organising leak of CBSE paper is kids’ game. This time the paper leak was done to dare the government.
On Tuesday evening, CBSE chairperson's office received a copy of the leaked class X Maths paper that was scheduled for Wednesday.
This might have been done to dare the CBSE or to score a political point. By not taking immediate steps of either changing the exam papers or canceling the exam and immediately announcing that exams for the respective papers will be held later, CBSE failed in the governance part.
The government of the day lost the political plot when Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar called a press conference and said that he had spoken to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him of the developments and added that, with the help of technology, the government would put in place a system "which is so foolproof that there is no leak".
This announcement could have been made by the Head of CBSE also. When a cabinet minister speaks one expects bigger announcements. Paper leak calls for harsher punishments. In a country where education is expensive, kids have to give up or forced to give up the activities a kid should be doing like playing, reading stories, etc., for better scores, persons involved in paper leak should be given harsher punishment.
The press conference by the HRD minister had all the correct intentions i.e. to assure students and parents that government is serious about exam paper leaks but it failed in the content part. It is expected from a government to take steps to stop paper leak but when a cabinet minister speaks one expects something more to hear, more concrete steps. What one was looking forward to hear was, what the government will do with those who were indulged in the paper leak.
No one in India believes that when a politician says "harsher steps", when they will be taken actually. Anyways, the fool proof methods will help the students of next year. There was nothing for the students who will have to appear in the exam again now. Today's student appearing in class 12th exam is 2019's voter. How could BJP make such a mistake? It is still not too late, the government should bring a new law or amend a law for a fast track hearing followed by a severe/harsher punishment for the culprits within a fixed time frame.
Sandeep Singh is a political analyst, views are personal.
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