Leaked algebra paper: Board rules out re-exam

Officials of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), Mumbai division, have ruled out the need for any re-examination in the SSC algebra paper, which had leaked.

The decision comes in the wake of the report submitted by a four-member inquiry committee that said the leak had been restricted to just one student.

"The members of the committee spoke to several people around the area from where the leak was reported. They found that just one boy had got the paper beforehand. This mean there will be no need for a re-examination," said Laxmikant Pande, chairperson, MSBSHSE Mumbai division.

A final call will, however, be taken only after the report is scrutinised by board officials in Pune.

The committee, chaired by Mumbai division secretary PR Pawar, was set up after a 16-year-old boy was found in possession of an additional algebra question paper at the YB Chavan School in Kandivli.

"We submitted the report on Wednesday after gathering information from over 95 main and sub-centres that fall under three custodian centres in Borivli, Dahisar and Malad," said Pawar.

The report, seen by dna, has recommended that the police investigate the boy's father's role in the case.

"The boy had claimed he got the question paper from his father, who is a police constable. He, however, changed his statement later. The committee has, hence, recommended that the police look into the call records of both the father and the son," said Pande.

The committee also wants the police to find out who had helped the boy write the answers on the sheets that he had brought to the examination hall as the handwriting in those sheets and the boy's answer sheets is not the same.

A moderator who examined the notes brought by the boy to the exam centre has said in her report that the boy would have got only about 15-20 minutes to scribble answers onto those sheets—the handwriting indicated that the job had been done in a hurry; moreover, there were mistakes in them.

The committee was, however, unable to trace the source of the leak or the person from the examination machinery involved in the leak.

"A clear account of the number of extra question papers returned by the centre was unavailable. So it was not possible to find out from where the paper had gone missing. The committee has also asked the police to find out who in the examination department could be involved in supplying the paper," said Pande.

A copy of the recommendations will be sent to the police.

To avoid leak in future
Give unique serial numbers to all question papers to help trace the source in case of a leak.

Upgrade more sub-centres. Currently, there are 333 main centres and 450 sub-centres in Mumbai division.

Restrict the maximum number of students covered under a custodian centre to 5,000. Currently, there are between 7,000 and 8,000 students under each centre.

The exam centre must retain extra question papers until the end of the examination. Return them to the custodian centre only a day after exams are over so that the custodian centre can keep an account of the number of question papers returned.