THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though the first paper in the SSLC examination which began on Monday turned out to be an easy paper for more than four lakh students in the state, it gave some tough moments for the education officials. The error that happened while distributing question papers to private students in Evans High School, Parassala, near here, kept the education officials on tenterhooks for several hours.
The 20-odd private students, who had appeared for the examination in the school, were distributed the question papers for regular students. Though the subject was the same, the schemes were different. When this was finally brought to the notice of the authorities, the question papers were taken back and the students retained in the classrooms until a decision was taken.
After several rounds of consultations with the Education Department, it was decided to hold reexamination which took place late in the evening.
The District Education officials visited the school and took charge of the conduct of the examination. Pareeksha Bhavan Secretary Johns V John said that action had been taken against the Chief Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent and four teachers in charge of the examination. He said that further investigation would be conducted in the coming days.
The Higher Secondary examination was also not free from controversies on the first day. The pincode for sending the answer-sheets back for evaluation was not uploaded in the site for many schools which created a delay in the procedure. However, Higher Secondary Director Mohammed Sagir said that a delay of one hour had happened and had not affected the conduct of the examination.