CUTTACK: The Board of Secondary Education (BSE) has come under scanner yet again. This time not for its conduct of matriculation examination but for Class IX.
Sources said, the question paper of English for Class IX examination went viral along with answers on YouTube on Wednesday. The BSE for the first time had decided to supply question papers online for the exams which started from the day and would continue till March 13. While the examination is scheduled to commence from 9 am, subject-wise question papers can be downloaded from 7 am to 11 am as per the programme finalised by BSE.
However, after some district education officers (DEOs) stated some of the schools may face difficulties in downloading the question papers owing to non-availability of internet, electricity, printing and xerox facilities, the BSE had revised the time for providing link for downloading the papers.
As per the revised timeline, the Board is supposed to provide the link at 4 pm a day ahead of the examination to normal schools and at 9 am a day earlier to remote schools which do not have internet, electricity, printing and xerox.
However, the first day’s English question paper carrying objective type questions of 50 marks went viral with answers on YouTube from Tuesday evening while the examination was scheduled to commence at 9 am on Wednesday. After coming out of the examination hall, several students claimed the viral objective type (multiple choice) questions were exactly the same they had answered.
“The objective type English question papers that we answered in the exam hall are exactly the same as those that had gone viral on YouTube,” said the examinees.
The Odisha Secondary School Teachers’ Association (OSSTA) too raised concern over the issue. “The manner in which question papers are being leaked frequently this year is worrying. It is surprising how the question papers is getting into the hands of brokers before the examinations,” said OSSTA general secretary Ranjan Kumar Dash.
BSE vice-president Nihar Ranjan Mohanty however said the board has no role to play in the matter. “We have supplied the question papers and the schools are conducting the examinations. The BSE is not responsible if the question papers go viral,” he said.
Worrying trend
Examinees claimed they answered the same questions that went viral on YouTube
OSSTA has raised concern over frequent allegations of question paper leaks