Gujarat: ‘Cheating’ case against school trustee, principal

“An FIR (First Information Report) has been registered against the school trustee, principal and the third unauthorised person caught from the exam centre,” said GSHSEB chairman A J Shah. “The incident happened a few minutes after the Class XII Accounts exam started in the afternoon. Strict action will be taken which can also lead to three-year imprisonment in this case.” Investigation into the case is being jointly being conducted by the Junagadh collector, district police and the district education officer.

Of the 21 cases of students copying in the exams, 14 were from Class X and seven from Class XII.

On day one of the exams, out of 9,27,685 class X students registered for the exams, 9,08,314 students appeared for the language paper. In Class XII, out of 2,21,144 registrations, 2,18,410 took the exam.

The Gujarat government has deputed Class I and Class II officials to be observers in 700 exam centres identified as sensitive and hyper-sensitive, to prevent cheating. The observers are to keep a vigil throughout the exam duration of three hours to prevent cheating.

The GSHSEB identified the 700 sensitive and hyper-sensitive centres based on several factors. Instances of copying had been noted at these centres in the past. An unusually high percentage of students of these centres had scored exceptionally well in past exams, which raised suspicion. Officials also said they received tip-offs that “mass copying” was being planned at these centres.

For Class X, 300 centres have been identified as sensitive and 44 hyper sensitive. For Class XII, 262 centres have been tagged sensitive and 23 hyper sensitive in the general subjects stream, whereas 84 have been marked sensitive and one hyper sensitive in the science stream.