Math paper cancelled, students left high and dry

Nikhila Pant Dhawan/ Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 20

The Punjab School Education Board’s decision to scrap the Class XII mathematics paper today following rumours of a leak left the students and teachers high and dry.

The paper, which was scheduled to begin at 2 pm, was cancelled at 3.30 pm. While students of non-medical and humanities streams were to appear for the same math paper, the commerce students were to attempt a slightly different set of questions.

The PSEB Class XII examinations began on February 28 and would continue till March 24. The mathematics paper, however, has been rescheduled for March 31.

Nishu Sharma, who had reached SSD Mangat Ram Mittal Senior Secondary School in March to appear for the examination, said, “Almost all students had reached the examination centre at least half an hour in advance and were allowed entry to the examination halls. We had even filled our particulars on the answer sheets. We were told that the question paper would be changed and distributed. At around 3.30 pm, the teachers announced that the paper had been cancelled and that it would be held on another date.”

At Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Mall Road, student Diljit Kaur said, “The paper cancellation has left us troubled. Math is a tough subject and since the paper has been rescheduled, the students will spend the days in fear and anticipation once again.”

DEO (Secondary) Maninder Kaur said, “In Bathinda district, the math paper was to be held at 71 centres and 2,442 students were to appear for it. At around 11 am, we received a message from the board asking to call all controllers. Around 1 pm, we were told that a new paper was being set and that it would be sent to us through email.”

“We directed the invigilators and centre heads to allow the students to enter the examination halls. After waiting for about an hour, we were told that the paper had been cancelled. We sent out information to all centre heads and directed them to vacate the examination halls,” she added.

Faridkot: The alleged leak of math question paper of Class XII of the PSEB and its cancellation kept the supervisory staff, students and the examination controller on tenterhooks for over three hours.

The Education Department informed all district education officers (DEOs) to convey it further to all exam centre controllers in their district not to open the packets of the question paper for the test, which was scheduled to begin at 2 pm.

All exam centre controllers were asked to rush to the DEO’s office at district headquarters and wait for new directions.

The controllers were informed that a new question paper was being received from the PSEB on email and the hard copies of this paper would be provided to them after its printing.

To get the printed copy of the new question paper, the examination centre controllers were made to stand in a queue outside a computer room where the DEO office staff were printing the new question paper and making its Xerox copies to distribute among 55,273 regular and 679 open school students over the state.

So that there is no ‘leak’ of this new question paper during its printing by the DEO office staff, the latter put up any available pieces of cloth, including table covers, to use these as curtains on the windows of their office in Faridkot.

However, this sudden happening made things went haywire. The printing of the new question paper continued till 2.30 pm at the district headquarters and the students and supervisory staff were waiting for its arrival at their exam centres in villages and towns, spreading all across the district.

At around 3 pm, the DEOs got another phone call, announcing the decision not to conduct the exam as the new question paper was also facing threat of being leaked for its haphazard printing and distribution at the district-level.

Thereafter, the students were asked to leave the exam centres. Now this paper will be conducted on March 31, Saturday, said Hargunjit Kaur, secretary, PSEB. 

“We tried our best to conduct the exam on Tuesday by sending the new paper after the report of the leak. We sent the new paper at the district-level but later on it was realised that it was not possible to send the paper to all exam centres on time and there were also a risk of getting it leaked,” she said.