The Central Board of Secondary Education, faced with possibly the worst crisis it has ever seen, is now stepping into damage control mode. With an aim to check the recurrence of exam paper leaks, a development that has drawn immense flak for the board from students as well as parents following its decision to conduct a re-examination for the class X Mathematics and class 12 Economics papers, the CBSE on Wednesday kick-started a “mock-drill” involving all examination centres across the country in connection with the retests.
In a circular sent to examination centre superintendents, the CBSE stated that the mock drill would be carried out at 2 pm in the respective examination centres for the re-conduct of examinations in “the subjects Economics Class XII and Mathematics Class X”. There are 4,453 centres that hold Class X exams and 4,138 centres that conduct Class XII exams. In the national capital alone, there are 744 and 733 test centres for X and XII classes respectively.
CBSE mock-drill for retest, will it make it leak-proof: Key things to know
CBSE’s circular said that all the centre superintendents with computer staff and examination coordinators be present at the centre at 2 pm. ‘CBSE headquarters will send a URL on the registered email/mobile no of the centre superintendent. Centres will open the URL and login by using the password,” the circular added.
As the mock-drill began, the first password was sent at 2.45 pm for accessing question papers and printing them. The second password arrived at 3 pm. “Centre superintendent will print set of 150 questions papers as the sample and prepare sets and send a confirmation to regional office at 4pm,” the CBSE circular said.
However, examination superintendents alleged there was no clarity regarding what the CBSE was trying to do. It has been learnt that examination superintendents in most cases are school principals.
It is believed that the CBSE is trying out multiple ways to plug such leaks and the mock drill was one of them.
Besides uncertainty over the motive behind the move, some examination centre superintendents claimed that printing question papers sets was an exercise that would take a few hours and were concerned about the ramifications such a time-taking exercise would have on examination day. Exam Centres did print question papers during the mock-drill.
Generally, each CBSE question paper has three sets. Each set has the same questions but placed in a different order. The number of question papers need to be printed varies from centre to centre, and can also vary based on the subject. For example, the number of Class X Mathematics exam papers will be much higher than that of class XII Economics paper.