A matter of shame !

Rajeev Sharma

The issue of frequent question paper leaks of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) – latest case being of Class-10 maths and Class-12 economics question papers – needs to be seen from multiple perspectives as diverse as administrative, social, crime and politics.
Theoretically speaking, the CBSE follows a Delhi Universitytype system of paper setting which should have been as foolproof and glitches free in practical terms as DU. But when it comes to implementation, the CBSE is nowhere in comparison to the DU's performance.

A national body, like the CBSE entrusted with a key aspect of education like conducting examinations, cannot continue to face the ignominy of paper leaks several times every year, something that has been happening repeatedly over decades. The leakage of CBSE question papers points to an administrative paralysis which shatters young children of formative years.

Delhi University has an impressive record of non-leakage of question papers. It's rare indeed when DU question papers are leaked. DU's modus operandi is as follows. Multiple paper setters, invariably experienced professors, are assigned the task of setting the question paper six to eight weeks before the examination. The set question paper is sent to the head of departments concerned through a CD who then get the set question paper printed from an undisclosed place and then send the printed question papers in sealed covers to respective examination centers hours before the exam.
The masterstroke is that the paper setter himself or herself doesn't know whether his or her question paper would be actually used. The reason is that the university hires multiple paper setters and thus have a mini bank of the question papers well before the actual exam. The authorities thus have the luxury of choosing which question paper to use and that too in a couple of hours before the exams and release the paper half an hour before the examination to the centers.
What can be a greater foolproof tactic to keep the question papers secret and leakproof than this methodology wherein even the paper setters themselves don't know whose question paper will be used? The CBSE too not only follows many of these practices but also goes one step ahead. It keeps the set question papers in a sealed cover in a bank locker with only a select few having access to the bank locker. Yet CBSE question papers keep on getting leaked.
The reasons are not far to seek. The answer is the volume: millions of students appear for CBSE exams every year. In contrast, the example cited above of Delhi University entails only a few hundred or at best a few thousand students, depending on the subject for which the exam is being held. Moreover, given the much smaller scale of examinees DU has the luxury of using minimum layers of confidantes. In fact, many years ago the DU had done away with the practice

The Government after government has been unable to seal the leaking bucket, irrespective of which political party is ruling at the Centre, indicating the extent and magnitude of the malaise. It's indeed a shame that a country which has the proven prowess of launching a hundred satellites into space at one go is running here and there like a headless chicken to use technology to ensure that school students take their exams without going through the harassment of taking their exams again just because of the leakage of CBSE question papers.

of hiring a printing press to circumvent a potential point of leakage. The CBSE, on the other hand, doesn't have this kind of luxury. A larger body with a huge constituency inevitably becomes a leaking bucket. In other words, the single biggest reason for the CBSE remaining a perpetual leaking bucket is because of the fact that every question paper has to go through scores of hands from the time when it is set to the time when it lands on the examinees' desks at the examination centers.

Ajay Maken CBSE is now toying with the idea of having electronically coded papers, stored in bank lockers, the key to which will be given only one hour before the exam to the centre to be printed in the presence of observers. But even this may not help as long as the number of people having access to the set question papers is not minimized, preferably in a single digit.

Randeep Surjewala A national body like the CBSE entrusted with a key aspect of education like conducting examinations cannot continue to face the ignominy of paper leaks several times every year, something that has been happening repeatedly over decades. Leakage of CBSE question papers points to an administrative paralysis which shatters young children of formative years. Young children have to burn midnight oil anyway for their exams but have to tool even harder and retake an exam in case of a leaked paper for no fault of theirs. The young children's anger and frustrations are rising, as we have seen earlier this week when they took to the streets to protest in several parts of the country. Surely, our youth brigade has much better things to do!

Shashi Tharoor The Government after government has been unable to seal the leaking bucket, irrespective of which political party is ruling at the Centre, indicating the extent and magnitude of the malaise. It's indeed a shame that a country which has the proven prowess of launching a hundred satellites into space at one go is running here and there like a headless chicken to use technology to ensure that school students take their exams without going through the harassment of taking their exams again just because of the leakage of CBSE question papers. The re-examination in cases of two question papers cited at the very outset would affect over two million students of class ten and twelve.
Lastly, let's turn to politics over leakage of CBSE question papers. India has the uncanny tradition of politicizing anything and everything. See for example the reaction of the Congress party.
Congress leader and former union minister Ajay Maken tweeted that his son had studied hard for the examination and was dejected. Well, this was a normal reaction of a parent.
Another Congress leader Randeep Surjewala crossed all red lines when he tweeted thus: "Modi Govt should be renamed as 'Paper Leak Govt'! SSC Scam jeopardised the future of over 2 Cr Youth. #CBSE Xth & XIIth class #PaperLeak has road hit the aspirations & hard work of lakhs of toiling students. Modiji, Your Govt has imperiled the future of our 'Exam Warriors'!" Yet another Congress leader and former union minister Shashi Tharoor tweeted thus: "The CBSE leak is a disgrace & accountability is essential.
Officials must be culpable, yet it is innocent students who will be punished." Tharoor also shared a student petition on change.org that reached him: 'Why should innocent students suffer for leaked paper of CBSE exams?'
While the Opposition never loses an opportunity to score brownie points over the government on anything under the sun, it's always desirable for a government that it doesn't give any chance to the opposition to put it down on the mat. Yes, it's true that it's not the direct responsibility of a government arm like the Ministry of Human Resource Development to conduct exams and the onus lies on the CBSE, ultimately it's the government at the Centre that gets the flak. After all, the CBSE doesn't fight elections. Political parties do.



		EDITOR'S MAIL FROM THE EDITOR POLITICAL IRONY POLITICS OF CONFLICT UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY QUESTION PAPER LEAKS FRANKLY SPEAKING REALPOLITIK SHAME INDIA ! SHAME INDIA ! SIGNS OF THE TIMES POLITICAL SCENE EXPORT DRIVE KASHMIR WATCH KASHMIR WATCH HIMACHAL PRADESH POLITICS IN PUNJAB CHANDIGARH DIARY COMMONWEALTH GAMES HITS & MISSES INDIA'S TIBET POLICY SYRIAN CRISIS REMEMBERING S. NIHAL SINGH REMEMBERING TVR BOOK BAZAAR BOOK BAZAAR YOGA IN DAILY LIFE STORY OF GURUGRAM CINEMA ART OF LIVING Issue:May' 2018 Subscribe Now	QUESTION PAPER LEAKS A matter of shame ! Rajeev Sharma The issue of frequent question paper leaks of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) – latest case being of Class-10 maths and Class-12 economics question papers – needs to be seen from multiple perspectives as diverse as administrative, social, crime and politics. Theoretically speaking, the CBSE follows a Delhi Universitytype system of paper setting which should have been as foolproof and glitches free in practical terms as DU. But when it comes to implementation, the CBSE is nowhere in comparison to the DU's performance. A national body, like the CBSE entrusted with a key aspect of education like conducting examinations, cannot continue to face the ignominy of paper leaks several times every year, something that has been happening repeatedly over decades. The leakage of CBSE question papers points to an administrative paralysis which shatters young children of formative years. Delhi University has an impressive record of non-leakage of question papers. It's rare indeed when DU question papers are leaked. DU's modus operandi is as follows. Multiple paper setters, invariably experienced professors, are assigned the task of setting the question paper six to eight weeks before the examination. The set question paper is sent to the head of departments concerned through a CD who then get the set question paper printed from an undisclosed place and then send the printed question papers in sealed covers to respective examination centers hours before the exam. The masterstroke is that the paper setter himself or herself doesn't know whether his or her question paper would be actually used. The reason is that the university hires multiple paper setters and thus have a mini bank of the question papers well before the actual exam. The authorities thus have the luxury of choosing which question paper to use and that too in a couple of hours before the exams and release the paper half an hour before the examination to the centers. What can be a greater foolproof tactic to keep the question papers secret and leakproof than this methodology wherein even the paper setters themselves don't know whose question paper will be used? The CBSE too not only follows many of these practices but also goes one step ahead. It keeps the set question papers in a sealed cover in a bank locker with only a select few having access to the bank locker. Yet CBSE question papers keep on getting leaked. The reasons are not far to seek. The answer is the volume: millions of students appear for CBSE exams every year. In contrast, the example cited above of Delhi University entails only a few hundred or at best a few thousand students, depending on the subject for which the exam is being held. Moreover, given the much smaller scale of examinees DU has the luxury of using minimum layers of confidantes. In fact, many years ago the DU had done away with the practice The Government after government has been unable to seal the leaking bucket, irrespective of which political party is ruling at the Centre, indicating the extent and magnitude of the malaise. It's indeed a shame that a country which has the proven prowess of launching a hundred satellites into space at one go is running here and there like a headless chicken to use technology to ensure that school students take their exams without going through the harassment of taking their exams again just because of the leakage of CBSE question papers. of hiring a printing press to circumvent a potential point of leakage. The CBSE, on the other hand, doesn't have this kind of luxury. A larger body with a huge constituency inevitably becomes a leaking bucket. In other words, the single biggest reason for the CBSE remaining a perpetual leaking bucket is because of the fact that every question paper has to go through scores of hands from the time when it is set to the time when it lands on the examinees' desks at the examination centers. Ajay Maken CBSE is now toying with the idea of having electronically coded papers, stored in bank lockers, the key to which will be given only one hour before the exam to the centre to be printed in the presence of observers. But even this may not help as long as the number of people having access to the set question papers is not minimized, preferably in a single digit. Randeep Surjewala A national body like the CBSE entrusted with a key aspect of education like conducting examinations cannot continue to face the ignominy of paper leaks several times every year, something that has been happening repeatedly over decades. Leakage of CBSE question papers points to an administrative paralysis which shatters young children of formative years. Young children have to burn midnight oil anyway for their exams but have to tool even harder and retake an exam in case of a leaked paper for no fault of theirs. The young children's anger and frustrations are rising, as we have seen earlier this week when they took to the streets to protest in several parts of the country. Surely, our youth brigade has much better things to do! Shashi Tharoor The Government after government has been unable to seal the leaking bucket, irrespective of which political party is ruling at the Centre, indicating the extent and magnitude of the malaise. It's indeed a shame that a country which has the proven prowess of launching a hundred satellites into space at one go is running here and there like a headless chicken to use technology to ensure that school students take their exams without going through the harassment of taking their exams again just because of the leakage of CBSE question papers. The re-examination in cases of two question papers cited at the very outset would affect over two million students of class ten and twelve. Lastly, let's turn to politics over leakage of CBSE question papers. India has the uncanny tradition of politicizing anything and everything. See for example the reaction of the Congress party. Congress leader and former union minister Ajay Maken tweeted that his son had studied hard for the examination and was dejected. Well, this was a normal reaction of a parent. Another Congress leader Randeep Surjewala crossed all red lines when he tweeted thus: "Modi Govt should be renamed as 'Paper Leak Govt'! SSC Scam jeopardised the future of over 2 Cr Youth. #CBSE Xth & XIIth class #PaperLeak has road hit the aspirations & hard work of lakhs of toiling students. Modiji, Your Govt has imperiled the future of our 'Exam Warriors'!" Yet another Congress leader and former union minister Shashi Tharoor tweeted thus: "The CBSE leak is a disgrace & accountability is essential. Officials must be culpable, yet it is innocent students who will be punished." Tharoor also shared a student petition on change.org that reached him: 'Why should innocent students suffer for leaked paper of CBSE exams?' While the Opposition never loses an opportunity to score brownie points over the government on anything under the sun, it's always desirable for a government that it doesn't give any chance to the opposition to put it down on the mat. Yes, it's true that it's not the direct responsibility of a government arm like the Ministry of Human Resource Development to conduct exams and the onus lies on the CBSE, ultimately it's the government at the Centre that gets the flak. After all, the CBSE doesn't fight elections. Political parties do.