CBSE or SSC, Edu Boards Have Failed to Protect Students’ Interest

From CBSE paper leak to SSC leak, here are all the times that the education boards in India have failed students.

From CBSE to SSC, why are the papers getting leaked?

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam

LEAK! LEAK! LEAK!

One after the other, all exam papers are getting leaked. The education system in India is proving to be a fail, as questions papers are increasingly on sale.

If you listen to the voices of students standing outside the CBSE office and look at their banners and observe the disappointment on their faces, then you would know where our education boards went wrong.

First, there were reports of a leak but the board was denying the same. Class XII Economics paper was leaked on 26 March and Class X Maths Paper was leaked on 28 March.

Initially the board denied it, but later, when the papers become available on WhatsApp and social media, CBSE woke up and announced that the exams stand nullified. In one stroke, the lives of students appearing for Class XII Economics and Class X Maths exam were played with.

Sixteen lakh students appeared for Class X Boards this year and 12 lakhs for Class XII. But because of the board’s mistakes, why should the students be punished?

But this is not just a problem with CBSE. In the past, so many papers have been leaked that students have lost trust in examinations. Let’s not forget the SSC examinations, it decides the future of two lakh students and their hard work. The leaked paper for SSC went viral on social media.

Let’s look beyond CBSE and SSC, shall we? UPPCL’s exam paper for junior engineers was also leaked. In the name of solving online exam, lakhs of rupees were being taken by gangs.

Apart from this, there are also the NEET PG students whose personal details were leaked. Personal data of one lakh medical students lies with National Board of Examinations (NBE) and should have been kept safely. Then how did it reach private colleges? This data belongs to doctors who had appeared for NEET for their post graduation on 7 January.

In Bihar, the question paper to recruit sub-inspectors was leaked. Students received lathis in exchange of protests. In Rajasthan, sepoy recruitment turned violent as a result of which, the examination had to be cancelled.

PM Modi recently conducted an event for students appearing for boards and gave them these words of wisdom:

In order to focus, you must first learn to defocus. The first problem is that we don’t know how to defocus.

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

Yes sir, you are right. The students have now learnt to defocus because when papers are being leaked one after the other, how do you expect the students to focus?

First they study in schools and colleges, then rely on tuitions and self-study, and then when they finally start dreaming of a better future during exams, one or the other agency will come and say "YOUR PAPER HAS BEEN LEAKED".

Then what will they do, instead of screaming on roads and protesting and wasting their precious time? What can they do?

The country is becoming digital, which is good. But who is responsible for preventing the burglary and leaking of papers? Is it the responsibility of the students or the bodies that conduct exams?

Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said something very significant on the issue as well.

I understand the pain of students and their parents because I am a parent too. So, that’s why the culprits who have leaked these papers will not be spared.

Prakash Javadekar, Union HRD Minister

Sir, it’s nice to know that you are worried but you took a lot of time to convey the same. It is not too late yet. Lakhs of students and their parents haven’t slept in peace for days. Please make them believe that when their children appear for exams, the paper getting leaked is not a concern they will have.

(This story was first published by Quint Hindi and has been translated by Anmol Saini.)