The CBSE on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it has decided not to hold re-examination of Class X Maths test as a scientific evaluation of random answer sheets did not indicate any unusual pattern to believe that there was widespread benefit of the alleged paper leak.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) made the submission in an affidavit in which it said it was not conducting the re-test for another reason — Class X is a gateway to class 11 and therefore “remains largely an internal segment of school education system”.
The affidavit was filed in response to a PIL, being heard by a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, in which an NGO had sought that CBSE be directed to hold the Class X exam in April, if required, and not in July as it had proposed earlier.
The court had asked the Board to indicate by April 16 its plans, if any, to re-conduct the Maths test for Class X. Subsequently, CBSE had issued a notification on April 3 saying it will not hold re-examination of the Class X Maths paper.
In its latest affidavit, CBSE cited reasons for its decision and said “the Board triggered a scientific approach to take a considered view after seeing the general trend emerging out of a random evaluation of the Class X Mathematics exam on priority basis.
“Accordingly, evaluation of Class X Mathematics was taken up and same did not indicate spikes or unusual patterns, giving any impression of widespread benefits of the alleged paper leak.”
The affidavit, filed through advocate Amit Bansal, had also said that the Ministry of Human Resource Development had set up a High Powered Committee on April 3 to examine the entire system of conducting Class X and XII exams by CBSE.
The CBSE's reply came on NGO Social Jurist's plea, filed through advocate Ashok Agarwal, also seeking a court-monitored probe into the recent leaks of the Maths and Economics question papers of Class X and XII, respectively.
The petition had also sought a direction to the Board to award liberal marks to the students in Maths and Economics re-examination.
The court on the last date of hearing had asked the CBSE how could it wait till July to re-conduct the test and keep the students on “tenterhooks” till then. It had also observed that such a step would not only waste an academic year of the students, but would also be akin to keeping “a sword hanging over their heads.”