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The decision has come as a relief to two lakh students from Delhi, NCR and Haryana, who would have appeared for the re-examination, if it was to be conducted.
The Human Resource Development ministry on Tuesday decided against conducting a re-examination of the Central Board of Secondary Education Class 10 mathematics paper following reports of paper leak, with the board saying that Class 10 was just an 'internal segment' of school education system.
The decision has come as a relief to two lakh students from Delhi, NCR and Haryana, who would have appeared for the re-examination, if it was to be conducted.
A total of 16 lakh students had registered for the exam which was held on March 28. The government, however, had decided to leave out 14 lakh students out of the scanner for the re-test, as the reported leaks were restricted to selected areas.
Education Secretary Anil Swarup had earlier in the day said, "Consequent to a preliminary evaluation of the impact of the reportedly leaked CBSE class 10 maths paper & keeping in mind the paramount interest of students, the CBSE has decided not to conduct a re-examination, even in the states of Delhi NCR and Haryana. Hence, no re-exam for class 10".
In a later statement, the CBSE said, 'Class X examination is essentially a gateway for class XI and thus remains largely an internal segment of school education.'
'On the other hand, Class XII exams are a gateway to higher education and various professional competitive exams which have limited seats...therefore, giving undue advantage of to a handful of beneficiaries of the alleged leak of the economics paper would not be in larger interest of the students,' it said.
The Centre had reintroduced Class X boards this year and junked the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) after it felt that the quality of education was suffering.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development had last week announced the re-examination of CBSE Class 12 economics paper on April 25. It had said the Class 10 mathematics re-test, if required, would be conducted only for the Delhi-NCR region and Haryana in July.
The announcement was made after the board received complaints that question papers of two subjects were leaked.
'The trend of random evaluation done so far for class X mathematics paper is not indicating sudden spikes of unusual patterns, giving any impression of passing on of widespread benefits of alleged leak to students,' the CBSE said in the statement.
'However, wherever it is conclusively established after due enquiry in specific cases, that undue advantage of the alleged leak has been taken by certain beneficiaries, action shall be taken as per the CBSE examination bye-laws,' it added.
School principal questioned again, may get a clean chit
The Delhi Police's Crime Branch questioned the principal of a school, whose two teachers were arrested for their alleged role in the leak of Class 12 economics paper, again on Tuesday, after which officials said they had not found anything yet to indicate his involvement in the leak.
The police is trying to find the link to the module in which handwritten papers were circulated days before the Class 10 mathematics and Class 12 economics papers.
So far, they have quizzed 150 people, including students and teachers, but they have not been able to trace the source of the leak.
Police is also looking into the possibility of loopholes in the process right from the time the paper is set to the time it reached the banks and subsequently from there, it is transferred to the examination centres.
"The leak could have happened at any stage. We are looking into the source of the leak. It is suspected that the leak happened between the time it was submitted to the banks and it was kept there for safekeep," the officer said.
A senior police officer privy to the probe said that so far, they have not found anything to indicate that the 55-year-old principal was in collusion with the arrested duo of Rishabh and Rohit, who had shared WhatsApp images of the economics paper with one Tauqeer, who was also arrested.
"The principal was negligent by allowing teachers to open papers at 9am when the time for opening them was 9.45 am. But so far, we have not found anything to indicate that he knew of Rishabh's and Rohit's action," he said.
The principal was questioned a day before the trio was arrested and was questioned yesterday and again today but even the arrested accused said that he was not aware of the leak.
The police is mulling about writing to the Central Board of Secondary Education recommending action against the principal for alleged negligence.
"We have not found anything against him so far to charge him under IPC sections. However, there was negligence on his part so we might write to the Board to initiate action against him," said the officer.
However, in order to be sure, the principal was again questioned today along with the arrested accused, who have been remanded in two days' police custody by a city court.
Police also questioned the teachers of other schools who were in touch with Rishabh and Rohit to ascertain whether they had also received the paper from the duo.
The investigators also said that the source of the leak was anywhere between outer Delhi and Haryana.
"It has come to the fore that not many checks are in place in those areas. Since they are far flung, they are somewhat neglected by officials who carry out surprise checks. We are looking into places like Sonepat, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarjh in Haryana as the probable places from where the leak might have happened," he added.
The Delhi Police has lodged two cases over the leaks of the CBSE question papers.