The class 12 economics re- examination saga

 I'm a seventeen year old commerce student pursuing my education under CBSE  board of India, and out here, the class 12 board examinations are a pretty big deal. I've been writing scores of revision examinations in the four months leading up to March so I was obviously euphoric when the ordeal came to an end on the 26th of March with the conclusion of my economics examination. I really had a blast over the next 48 hours, even dismissing allegations of a leak that surfaced on the 27th. This was because similar claims had been made post the accountancy examination and the CBSE assured the nation that it was 'fake news.' (The term seems to be catching on pretty quickly amongst politicians all over the world.)

So you can imagine my horror when the leak was confirmed and a re- examination was ordered for class 12 economics and class 10 mathematics. In fact, so elated was I that the exams were finally done, that when a friend of mine called to give me the horrific news, I presumed she was playing a prank and refused to believe her!

The re- examination raises a couple issues that I thought needed to be put out there. 

1. The obvious injustice of making several lakhs of students pay for something that is not their fault by any stretch of examination. It is the responsibility of the board to protect the 'sanctity of the examinations' by blocking all possible outlets for a leak. Apparently, until now, the question papers were held in bank locks and released to the centres a short while prior to the commencement of the exam. However, what with news of the leak, this system is going to be replaced with electronic coding. 

Why wasn't this measure adopted much earlier? Had it been done, the leaks could easily have been prevented, especially because they seem to have taken place via social media.

2. What conclusive evidence of the leak was obtained? Shouldn't this information be made public as opposed to statements about 'probes being underway'? What is the difference between the rumours about the accountancy exam that were put to rest and those about the economics and mathematics papers? If not anything else, it's a reasonable ask to want to know exactly what damaging evidence was unearthed. 

3. As per the original schedule, the exams for class 12 were to conclude on the 13th of April, which means that the re- exam cannot be conducted anytime before that, lest further confusion ensue. This becomes a problem given that this year, a conscious effort was made to conclude the examinations earlier than has been the practice in the past. In light of the same, the schedule for entrance examinations was drawn up accordingly. Now, because of the re- exam, preparation for entrance exams will obviously be affected. The least the board can do is announce the date of the re-exam as quickly as possible.

4. Usually, separate question papers for the National Capital Region, regions Outside Delhi and for Foreign students studying under the CBSE board, each with three different sets. That makes it nine sets in all. This year on, however,  the removal of 'moderation' while correcting papers has necessitated greater similarities in the papers across all three groups. Given this situation, although the leaks have occurred only within the region of Delhi, students all over India are required to take the examination again, which is pretty preposterous.

5. What happens to all the answer papers of the exam conducted on the 26th? Will they be destroyed properly? Given the inability of the authorities to keep a set of question papers safe, what guarantee is there that the original answer papers will be destroyed properly? Even more alarming is the possibility of a mismatch between the question papers of the re- examination and the answer papers of the original one. 

At the end of the day, however, regardless of the views we all express, there is going to be a re- examination. So we might as well enjoy our vacation for a while before we begin studying all over again.