NEW DELHI: In a major relief for thousands of students, the Centre on Tuesday said that no re-test for the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) Class 10th Maths paper will be held in the wake of a controversy over the leak of the Maths and Economics papers on March 28.
''This was being done in the paramount interest of students,'' said Anil Swarup, Education Secretary, Government of India.
''Consequent to the preliminary evaluation of the impact of reportedly leaked CBSE Class 10 Maths paper and keeping in mind the paramount interest of students, CBSE has decided not to conduct re-examination even in the states of Delhi NCR and Haryana. Hence, no re-exam for class 10,'' Anil Swarup was quoted as saying by ANI.
Consequent to the preliminary evaluation of the impact of reportedly leaked CBSE class 10 maths paper & keeping in mind the paramount interest of students, CBSE has decided not to conduct re-examination even in the states of Delhi NCR & Haryana: Anil Swarup, Secy, HRD Ministry pic.twitter.com/CI50Si64EB
— ANI (@ANI) April 3, 2018
The statement from the Education Secretary came ahead of the Wednesday hearing in the Supreme Court on various petitions challenging the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) March 28 decision to re-conduct the maths exam for Class 10 after its question paper was leaked.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, had on Monday said that the matter related to CBSE re-test will be taken up on April 4 after it was mentioned for urgent hearing.
Besides challenging the re-conduct of the exam, the petitioners have sought a probe into the leak and declaration of results on the basis of the exams already conducted.
The Centre had on March 30 announced that re-examination will be held for Class 12 Economics paper throughout the country on April 25 while a fresh test for Class 10 Maths paper will be held only in Delhi, NCR and Haryana in July.
Kerala student Rohan Mathew and two others moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the CBSE decision to re-conduct the Class 10 mathematics examination.
A student of Choice School in Kochi, Mathew contended that the decision to re-conduct the exam was arbitrary, illegal and violative of the Constitution's Article 14 (equality before law), Article 21 (right to life and liberty) and 21A (right to education).
Mathew, represented by his father Santhosh Mathew, a practicing lawyer of the Kerala High Court, also sought stringent action against the erring officials of the CBSE for "jeopardising the career of nearly 16 lakh students who appeared for the exam".
Questioning the CBSE decision to cancel the exam and re-conduct it "merely based on the unconfirmed apprehension that the question paper has been leaked in Delhi", he said that unless there is an evidence for "widespread and systemic leaking of papers, cancellation of examination of this magnitude is not the solution".
The alleged of CBSE Board papers has triggered concerns among the students and their parents across the country. Delhi Police had registered two cases in this regard and detained several people in connection with their alleged role in the leak of Board papers.
Amid an outcry over the incident, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had assured that the interests of the students would be taken care off.
(With Agency inputs)
