PSEB cancels exams, 290 students to appear again

The English exam for 120 students of Class X has been cancelled.

The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has decided to re-conduct examinations in four subjects at Dashmesh Public Senior Secondary School, Kohara, as the “answer sheets were not submitted on time”.

The English exam for 120 students of Class X held on March 20 and three exams of 170 students of Class XII — business economics and quantitative methods (for commerce group), history (humanities group) and chemistry (science group) held on March 9 have been cancelled. G S Bath, general secretary of PSEB, told The Indian Express, “We did not receive answer sheets on time from the Kohara centre, so four exams have been cancelled. To eliminate any discrepancy, cheating or tampering, there is no other option but to re-conduct the exam.” The board has, however, not specified any time limit (in hours or days) for submission of answer sheets at the collection centre.

Asked if anyone was responsible for submitting answer sheets in time, Bath said, “Only an inquiry will prove due to whose negligence the answer sheets did not reach in time. The role of the superintendent, centre controller and collection centre officials is under the scanner in this case.”

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He added, “The submission of sheets depends on the distance of the exam centre from the collection centre, but we expect the sheets to reach within an hour of the day of the exam.” Rupinder Kaur, superintendent of the Kohara centre, said, “I submitted answer sheets of all four exams on time on the same day at the collection centre. It was their duty to submit the sealed packets further to PSEB.”

Sukhdarshan Singh, president of Anti-Copying Teacher’s Front, said, “It is a sad state of affairs that there is no check on submission of answer sheets and students have to pay for the goof-up by teachers and board officials.”

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