To show or not to show is SSC board’s dilemma

Failing at the SSC exams was just the beginning of 17-year-old Hemant Kantaria’s ordeal. Expecting 70% marks, Hemant and his family were shocked when the results showed him to have failed in four subjects.

Hemant’s world was turned upside down. Instead of seeking admission in college, he began doing the rounds of the office of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education to find out if he had really failed to clear the exams. Hemant had appeared as a private student.

The distraught family applied for verification. But the results were the same as before. The family then demanded to go through the answer sheets under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to find out where Hemant had erred. But two contradictory orders on the issue have added to Hemant’s woes.

While a three-year-old order of the state’s chief information commissioner says answer sheets cannot be given to students for reasons of logistics, a recent one passed by Pune’s information commissioner says it is the right of students to know where they have erred.
The state board has challenged the latter order and filed a petition in the Bombay high court. Meanwhile, Kantaria’s appeal with the state’s chief information commissioner is also expected to come up for hearing this week.

“There is no ground like ‘logistical problem’ in the RTI Act to deny information,” said Hemant’s uncle Sameer Kanparia. “In verification they just tally the marks again. My nephew has reappeared for the exams, but the period has been traumatic for him as he has lost confidence. He doesn’t know if what he has done is right or wrong.”

Principals and parents support the Kantarias. “It is a student’s right to know where he has gone wrong. It may create administrative difficulties but that cannot stop one from his rights,” said Campion School principal Paul Machado.

“How can one rectify his mistake when he feels what he did was right and he is not shown where he has gone wrong?” said Arundhati Chauhan of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) United Forum. Jayant Jain of the Forum for Fairness in Education said, “It is a public document and you cannot deny that. The whole career of a student is dependent on that paper. He will be discouraged. The Union HRD minister is saying there will be no exams. But how will they justify grades without showing the answer sheets?”

The board on its part believes its examiners rarely go wrong. “It is very rare for an examiner to go wrong. And a moderator’s decision cannot be challenged,” said Shridhar Salunkhe, who chairs the Mumbai divisional board. “It is up to the state government to decide whether to show the answer sheets or give photocopies to the students. A policy should be out after the assembly elections.”

At present, the board in Andhra Pradesh gives photocopies of the answer sheets to students while that in Gujarat has a policy of showing the sheets to them.