Madhyamik cheats had smartphones. Parents clueless, board smells a racket
Times of India | 5 March 2024
Kolkata: Parents of several students, who were barred from Madhyamik this year for carrying mobiles to exam halls, did not have any inkling that their children owned the smart devices. They said they were too poor to even think of their children’s higher studies, let alone buy them mobiles. This revelation prompted officials to suspect the involvement of outsiders, who acted as “mediators”, supplying smartphones and SIM cards to the “comparatively weak.” students, possibly in exchange for money though none had admitted to it.
West Bengal Board of Secondary Education held its first phase of hearing of reported against (RA) and cancelled exam cases, reported from Alipurdar, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, North and South Dinajpur, and Malda under north Bengal regional office, over the weekend. Thirty-six students were barred from Madhyamik for carrying mobiles to exam halls, among whom 34 were from the north Bengal region. Apart from the barred Madhyamik candidates, their guardians, centre secretaries, venue supervisor, office-in-charges and invigilators were also called for the meeting. A senior official said, “We spoke to the guardians, some of whom were not even aware of their children possessing smartphones. They said they couldn’t afford to buy a smartphone for their children.”
He added, “It was revealed during the interaction that some unrecognized private schools and coaching centres were involved in this racket, under which they identified weak students, who were not sure about clearing the exams and approached them with the devices. Some staff members and even teachers helped supply answers on social media groups created by them. There might have been monetary transactions but none at the interaction directly accepted it.”
An official said some schools had violated board instructions. At some schools, a number of invigilators were not at the venue during the exams, which allowed some candidates to use unfair means. “It was clearly said there should be two invigilators at every exam centre and if any school had inadequate teachers, they should request the board to send teachers from nearby schools. But some schools didn’t inform the board about teacher shortage,” one official said.
WBBSE president Ramanuj Ganugly said, “After completing the hearing, all the region’s findings will be sent to the ad-hoc committee for the final decision.”
One of the barred students from Malda, who did not appear for the hearing, could be barred from exams next time.