Paper leak: Punjab School Education Board cancels Class 12 maths exam, announces new date

Earlier in the day, PSEB had directed the concerned district education officers (DEOs) to print new question papers and distribute those among students

education Updated: Mar 20, 2018 20:36 IST
Teachers standing to collect the new question papers before the cancellation call came in Faridkot on Tuesday.
Teachers standing to collect the new question papers before the cancellation call came in Faridkot on Tuesday.(HT Photo)

The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) on Tuesday cancelled the Class 12 mathematics exam after reports of paper leak.

The exam will now be held on March 31 (Saturday).

On Tuesday, around 55,000 regular and 679 private students were to appear for the exam, scheduled at 2pm to 5 pm across Punjab.

At 11am, the education board control room issued directions to the district education officers to replace the question papers with the new ones. New question papers were sent to district authorities on mail and the DEOs conveyed the messages to examination controllers to collect printouts from district head offices of the board.

But the officials failed to provide new set of question papers on time. At 3pm, the board announced that the paper has been cancelled.

Board secretary Hargunjit Kaur said they came to know about the paper leak on WhatsApp. “After verifying facts, we have decided to postpone the exam,” she said. “We dropped the idea of providing new set of question papers due to secrecy issues,” she added.

Education minister Aruna Chaudhary said a departmental inquiry has been ordered and strict action will be taken against those found guilty of paper leak.