Meghalaya Board directs schools to collect question papers from the nearest police station

PTI SHILLONG, FEBRUARY 5 An embarrassed Meghalaya Board of Secondary Education (MBoSE) on February 4 said it has tightened the noose to ensure that leakages of question papers ahead of examinations this year does not happen. MBoSE deputy director M Marbaniang said the Board had started adopting strict measures in the supply of question papers for the ongoing class XI (higher secondary) promotion examinations in the state. In its latest direction to the schools, the board has directed all institutions to collect question papers from the nearest police station and in the case of the absence of any, the question papers were to be kept in the nearest bank. “We have directed all institutions to collect the question papers one hour before the commencement of the examination and also to ensure the name of the person responsible for lifting them to make an entry in the register,” Marbaniang said. Last year, the board had to face a major embarrassment when question papers for secondary school final exams were reportedly leaked in several parts of the state. The question paper of Science and Technology was leaked just before the exam scheduled for November 30 last year. The examination had to be cancelled and held later on December 4. A report in this regard, which was submitted to the government revealed several anomalies in the process of handling the sealed and ‘confidential’ package. The findings pointed that some of the schools, which were designated as deposit centres, had violated strict orders on how to handle the package. “Some of the question paper deposit centres have violated the norm, which directed that papers should be distributed to respective schools one hour before the commencement of the examination. “Instead, it was found that papers were distributed to schools even a day before the examination,” the report cited. It also revealed tampering of seal of confidential package when the schools were asked to return the question papers supplied earlier, before rescheduling of the exams for the Science and Technology subject. There were cases where question papers were taken out from the confidential package for photo copying. This was detected from the fact that the seal was broken and there were attempts to re-seal the package again, the report added.