The news about the re-test of the Economic paper of class 12th on April 25, 2018 has affected many aspirants preparing for other competitive exams. The topic has undoubtedly been the hottest academic controversy in the past few years.
Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recently decided to re-conduct the Economics paper after reports of being leaked came forward. However, the decision to conduct a retest for Mathematics paper of class 10th was dropped.
This decision is surely to affect a lot of students preparing for various medical, engineering, and other fields’ entrance examinations such as NEET, JEE Main, AIIMS, BITS, CLAT, NDA, and more. The students are furious over CBSE’s decision of retest saying that it would affect their results of other competitive entrances, since they are now required to again dedicate time to prepare for the retest.
However, students who did not have Economics as a subject in their class 12th will not be affected by this decision. The affected students have fallen victims to the mismanagement of CBSE and the government. The entire paper leak has been blamed on the Board conducting body- CBSE.
Many students have filed petitions to get the re-test cancelled in regards with the paper leak. However, the Honorable Supreme Court has dismissed such petitions stating that the dates of the entrance exams is not interfering with that of the retest date, so the board’s decision of retest would be retained.
Supreme Court has also dismissed the pleas filed by parents and students requesting a CBI inquiry for the investigations of paper leak of the 10th and 12th classes. Sahil Tagotra and Girija Krishan Varma, had filed pleas on the behalf of parents of class 12th students Rashmi Arora, Monica Sharma, and Mahinder Pratap Singh, stating that the said retest of the Economics paper would jeopardize the career options of many such students.
JEE Main 2018 is scheduled to be conducted from April 08 to 16, 2018, and the NEET UG 2018 exam on May 06, 2018. Those studying for NEET will have to compromise their time and devote to economics as well. For JEE Main aspirants, candidates can get over with the same and then focus on the re-test.
The Supreme Court, however, reviewed these and all similar petitions and dismissed the same. Class 10 students of the CBSE board, however, were lucky enough that the board dropped the possibility to re-test their Mathematics paper.
The board made their decision of not conducting the Mathematics exam of class 10th post carrying out an evaluation of impact of paper leak. It was identified that the Mathematics paper class 10th was leaked in only some parts of the country.
So to evaluate and decide on the best interest of all students of class 10th, it was decided that the paper was not supposed for re-test, unlike the Economics paper of class 12th. This decision turned as a boon and relieved more than 1.6 million students of class 10th of CBSE.
About 200,000 class 10 students were hailing from Delhi, NCR, and Haryana region where the Mathematics paper was alleged to be leaked. The Economics paper of 12th class and Mathematics paper of 10th class were conducted on March 26, 2018 and March 28, 2018, respectively.
Based on some complaints and probes, it was confirmed that these papers were leaked before the exams actually took place. CBSE then announced on March 28, 2018 that these two exams may be re-conducted for some later dates. However, the decision of conducting the Mathematics paper of class 10th again was finally dropped.
It was definitely hard for the innocent class 12th students who would have to attempt the re-test of the Economics paper on April 25, 2018, and further go through major entrance examinations before or after that. Many students are already believing that the paper leak case is surely to ruin their one year of academic curriculum.