Cheating students allowed to give exams

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) on Wednesday confirmed that all the students who have been held for cheating and their alleged role in the leak of test papers would be allowed to appear for their remaining examinations. After the exams are over, the inquiry committee will examine the involvement of each student in these cases and will accordingly submit it to the board for further action.

The MSBSHSE (Mumbai division) secretary Subhash Borse told The Asian Age that if the student is found guilty after the inquiry committee's probe, he or she will be debarred from all examinations. "From existing examinations to the next five examinations that we will conduct in the future, the student will be debarred from it. This means the student will lose his or her three and a half years," Mr Borse said. The MSBSHSE, every year conducts two examinations - one is the main board examination (in the month of March-April) and the second for the repeaters or ATKT students (in the month of July-August).

He further said, "If the student has given the ongoing exams and then found guilty, we will withdraw the marks and cancel his name off our records till the next three and a half years." Mentioning staff or teachers who are involved in the paper leaks, he said, "Staffs and teachers fall under the jurisdiction of the schools. Anything further will be addressed by the police and not us." Mr Borse added that the administrative investigation will go on in these cases unless the real culprit behind these paper leaks is not held.

Talking about the leaks during the state board examination, state education minister Vinod Tawde told the legislative council that examination centres found guilty of leaking the papers would be blacklisted and permanently barred from conducing the examinations in the future.