A student protests at Jantar Mantar on Thursday. (Photo: Abhinav Saha)
After the CBSE devised a way to “tackle” the leak, examination centres were Saturday asked to make elaborate preparations to print out question papers. But on Monday, the papers were physically delivered by CBSE officials like they always have been, and many centres complained of delays of 45 minutes to an hour in starting the examination.
The Board said there was a delay because of the Bharat Bandh. “Our officials could not reach on time but this happened all over India. The students were allowed to enter on time and given extra time to complete the exams,” CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal told The Indian Express.
On Saturday, the Board had sent a circular with 10 sets of instructions to the examination superintendents to download the encrypted question papers, print them and distribute them for the examination, to be held Monday onwards. Asked about why the old system was followed then, Karwal said, “That was just our way to deflect the hackers. We are trying a lot of alternative method to deal with this issue.”
Most schools that served as examination centres spent time on Sunday fixing their high-speed internet connection, having hired photocopying machines as instructed. Class X students had their French/Sanskrit/Urdu examination, while Class XII had their language elective paper.
However, on Sunday evening, the centre superintendents were informed that the earlier practice would be carried out and that there was no need to print out the papers. “We spent a lot of time making the arrangements but printing papers was not a foolproof mechanism. Thankfully, the Board realised it, even though there was a delay,” said A K Jha, principal of a Delhi government school in Rohini’s sector 8.
A principal of a north Delhi school said, “Why can’t the board have some clarity? Our schools had printers but we had to make security arrangements too.” Many exam centres in outer districts were among those where exam papers reached late, prompting fears among some students that the paper may have leaked again.