CUTTACK: The All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) sees a wider game plan behind the theft of question papers leading to postponement of the matriculation examinations this year. The incident is part of a well-orchestrated plan to destabilise the examination system and pave way for outsourcing the process to private companies in the coming years, activists of the organisation alleged.
More than 500 activists on Monday besieged the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) office here demanding investigation of this angle too. All officers and staff found guilty should be subjected to severe punishment, State president Akhay Das said. Das alleged that the theft incident was glaringly deceptive. If the motive was to leak questions, the miscreants could have surreptitiously made off with one question paper. But by making away with bundles of question papers, they made it clear that the intent was not to leak question papers but to disrupt the whole examination process.
The students’ organisation has also called for urgent steps to upgrade the infrastructure in schools and provide them with adequate security before and during the examinations.
Over five lakh students are not only seriously affected due to the shifting of examinations but also their parents will have to shoulder double financial burden for making arrangements for their trips to the examination centres. With a major chunk of the students belonging to the poorer section, the impact will be substantial, secretary, AIDSO, Cuttack, Bhagyarabi Das said.