NEW DELHI: The CBSE, on Wednesday, refuted allegations that several questions of the offline Joint Entrance Examination (Main), 2018, which was held on April 8, had matched with a 2-year-old mock test paper of a Hyderabad based coaching institute.
JEE (Main) is a competitive examination for admission into NITs, IITs, IISERs and several other engineering institutions and also acts as the first step for admission into IITs and is conducted by the CBSE which has been facing flak over charges of leak of recently held class X and XII examinations.
Speaking to the New Indian Express, CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal, however, said that the reports of the “purported match” were “hoax.”
“We have examined the issue thoroughly after the matter was brought to our notice and it turned out to be a hoax. It looks like an organised crime syndicate is working against the CBSE,” she said.
A 1988-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, Karwal, has been at the centre of a massive controversy that broke out following reports of class X and XII board paper leaks.
Since Tuesday evening, copies of a 2016 sample paper by a Hyderabad based coaching institute—Narayana IIT Academy and a copy of the JEE Main 2018 question paper have been doing the rounds on social media. The accompanying messages said that JEE Physics set C had picked 9 same questions from the sample paper.
Karwal, however, said that she had examined the actual questions which came from 8 different question setters and it was unlikely that the questions could have been picked up from the mock test paper.
“Question setters, who belong to prestigious institutions, work on the questions in a setting under CCTV surveillance where there is absolutely no access to mobiles or internet and they are required to submit their proposed questions in handwriting after framing them,” said Karwal “ It then goes to moderators who approve these questions and they are then printed in different sets—so it’s just impossible that several questions of the JEE paper and a sample paper can match word by word. It looks like after the JEE Main examination on April 8, somebody has doctored the mock test paper of a particular coaching centre to show that the papers matched.”
The CBSE chairperson added that about 32 websites and YouTube channels had been identified which had been spreading rumours about CBSE and complaints had been forwarded to Delhi police.
“Twelve of these website and channels have already been pulled down and action is being taken against the rest,” Karwal added.
The online examination of JEE (Main), 2018 is scheduled for April 15.