Despite campaign to curb cheating, state board records 355 cases in HSC & SSC exams

Out of a total 355 copying cases, 242 are from HSC exams and 113 from SSC exams. Last year, HSC exam had recorded 235 copying cases whereas SSC exam had recorded 99. The data shows a typical trend of higher number of copying cases in Mathematics, Physics and other science subjects.

A senior teacher from a suburban school said, “The number of copying cases will always be higher in HSC when compared with SSC. Setting aside the fact that the difficulty level in HSC is higher, it is also important to note that more HSC students have access to mobile phones and other devices which can be used for copying.”

The teacher pointed out how most paper leak cases reported in Maharashtra State Board exams have also been during HSC exam.

This year too, a case of paper leak was reported in the Mathematics paper of HSC held on March 3, wherein images of a few pages of the question paper were found in circulation in Buldhana’s Sinkhed Raja town, a few minutes before the examination. The Maharashtra state board had filed a police complaint over the issue.

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education had launched a new copy-free exam campaign this year to curb malpractices during exams. Under this campaign, strict anti-copying measures were introduced. It was made mandatory for students to be seated in the exam hall 30 minutes before the scheduled time for the exam. The state board also stopped the practice of distributing question papers 10 minutes before the exam. Students were given a question-paper at the beginning of the exam so that nobody could take an image. An additional 10 minutes were allotted to students to complete the paper.

Additionally, the entire process of transportation of the question papers from the main centre to all the exam centres, followed by its distribution, will now be recorded on mobile phones. Additionally, the person responsible for this job of transportation of question papers, which has to be done discreetly, will have to keep the GPRS on the entire time.

Chairperson of Maharashtra State Board Sharad Gosavi was unavailable for comment.