Desperate begging, then blessings: how repeated, puzzling leaks are defeating the purpose of PAT in Maharashtra

For the examination that started on August 6, Marathi language papers for Class 7 and Maths papers for classes 7 and 8 were leaked with answers on three YouTube channels. For the PAT held from October 11, five YouTube channels uploaded three question papers, along with the answers, a day before the exam, as per the FIRs registered at Vishrambag police station by officials of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) which conducts the exam.

Who are the leaks helping?

While on one hand, the police investigation points to a lack of security and confidentiality measures for the conduct of PAT, the back to back leaks are puzzling at many levels. Here is why:

Since 2023, Maharashtra’s PAT is conducted under the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) scheme, launched in 2020 for six states with Rs 5,718 crore funding, including Rs 3,700 crore from the World Bank. Held thrice a year in government and aided schools for Classes 3–8, PAT assesses primary language, Maths, and English to identify learning gaps and guide student-specific support.

“So who are the leaks really helping? The outcome has no impact like SSC or HSC exams. Other than the YouTube channels who are getting thousands of views, what the leaks actually do is compromise this assessment and defeat its purpose. It is actually not a test of students but rather of the teachers, effectively. If a larger number of students perform below average it reflects poorly on teachers and makes it imperative on them to teach students again,” said an officer who is privy to details of the probe.

‘Difficult to pinpoint in vast process’

“The statements of stakeholders have been recorded and it is really difficult to pinpoint the leak in this very vast process,” the officer added. In the April 2024 session, the test was conducted for over 80 lakh students in grades 3 to 8. This makes the scale of the PAT exam five times bigger than the Class 10 board exam (SSC), for which around 15 lakh students appear.

“The subject experts designated by the SCERT set the papers. A Pune-based company is responsible for the printing of the papers, while a Mumbai-based cargo company was responsible for the transport of the papers to the regional units and then to schools. The possible leak can be anywhere in the state-run set-up, with the private contractors, intermediate administrative units and even schools. This makes the suspect pool too wide to probe. We are taking help from cyber experts to probe the activity on YouTube,” said another senior police officer.

In a statement shared after the latest paper leak, Rahul Rekhawar, Director, SCERT, said, “Considering the scale – 85 lakh students appearing for three papers thrice a year – board-like exams cannot be conducted.” He also claimed that such malpractices had reduced due to repeated FIRs. Rekhawar, who is currently in Bihar, did not respond to calls or messages for a fresh comment on the issue.

Exam needs ‘decentralised format’

“It is difficult to understand why someone is leaking it because there is nothing at stake. PAT is just like a census conducted in government and aided schools,” said former SCERT director Vasant Kalpande, adding that the exam in its current form is not tenable. “The only things that are really necessary should be undertaken (by the education department). The exam needs to be changed into a decentralised format. This would prevent the leaking of the paper at the state level at least,” he said.

A school teacher in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) told The Indian Express that he was aware of a few schools that were given fewer copies of papers than was required. “This leads to the schools making photocopies of the question paper, which adds to the chances of leak. The Indian Express had reported as early as 2023 that schools were not being provided enough papers.

Speaking to The Indian Express last week, A L Deshmukh, retired principal of Pune’s Apte Prashala, had said that board exams are only possible because they are conducted on a war footing with the involvement of district collectors and police commissioners. An exam of this scale without such prevention measures would inevitably have leaks, he said.