Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu on Tuesday said class 11 question paper leak across several schools, which led to the cancellation of exams of all 36 subjects, did not happen at the level of conducting body i.e. Assam State School Education Board (ASEEB). Speaking at the state Assembly, Pegu said the leak happened at the school level and a policy decision will be needed to counter the problem.
The Education Minister announced to cancel all the examinations of Class 11 of the Assam state board from March 24 to 29, comprising 36 subjects following reports of several paper leaks at different places. Earlier, the Mathematics paper for the first year of Higher Secondary Education, was leaked. These reports prompted the government to cancel the board exams.
Congress raised questions
Congress MLA Abdur Rashid Mandal raised the matter in the Assam Assemby during Zero hour and said, "The Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB) was formed for conducting the examinations and it failed to do so in the very first exams after its formation."
Mandal also highlighted the incidences where ministers resigned after taking moral responsibilities.
Pegu denied lapse on the part of ASSEB
Answering to the questions raised in the Assemly, Assam Education minister highlighted government's action on paper leak and said the leak of question papers was traced to 15 schools -- 12 private and three provincialised. The affiliation of all the 15 schools was immediately suspended and admissions in the new session were stopped, he said.
"The problem has been at the school level, and we have to address the problem where it occurred," he said, denying a lapse on the part of ASSEB.
Pegu said the prime and general focus was on board exams i.e. class 10 and 12 exams, and the ASSEB ensured these were conducted smoothly. He said schools were entrusted with the class 11 question papers in advance, but at some places, the seals were opened ahead of schedule. "A policy decision would be needed on whether to conduct the class 11 exams in private schools in the future," he said. "The private schools also serve as centres for entrance tests of competitive exams. We have to look into it also," he added.
The minister also informed that a meeting of the ASSEB took place on Monday and the new schedule for the class 11 papers will be announced after the panchayat poll dates are declared.
(PTI inputs)
