Just days after Class VIII English and mathematics question papers of the third round of baseline test were leaked, a parent has alleged that a school in Malad not only conducted the test prior to the scheduled date, but also dictated the answers to its students
Just days after Class VIII English and mathematics question papers of the third round of baseline test were leaked, a parent has alleged that a school in Malad not only conducted the test prior to the scheduled date, but also dictated the answers to its students.
Vaishali Doshi (42), parent of a Class VII student, Priyal (13), of Aspee Nutan English Medium School, at Marve, Malad, yesterday lodged a complaint with the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan against the school principal in this regard.
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Doshi told mid-day that the tests were to be held on April 6-7 (later pushed to April 10-11 owing to the paper leak on Tuesday), but the school conducted it a day earlier, and told students to write April 6 as the date of examination on the English test paper and April 7 on the mathematics paper.
She claimed that the invigilator dictated answers to the students during both the tests, and that this took place with the blessing of the school principal, Nuzhat Khan.
Unearthing malpractice
Doshi said she found out about the malpractice after receiving a complaint against her daughter on Wednesday. "I was called, where the authorities told me that my daughter had been caught cheating. My daughter then revealed that the invigilator had dictated the answers, and that two of her classmates had snatched her answer sheet to copy. Teacher then hauled my daughter and the two students over to the principal's office for cheating."
Officials say
Ganesh Bhagat, assistant programme officer of Sarva Shikha Abhiyan, said an inquiry into the complaint would be initiated on April 10. He said both English and mathematics papers had been distributed to the school on April 5, with the understanding that neither of them would be taken out before time. Khan refuted the allegations, but didn't elaborate.
Nand Kumar, principal secretary of state school education, said trust is the linchpin in the conduct of the test. "We distribute question papers among schools, believing that they would not resort to any malpractice."
The baseline test is one of three conducted every year since 2015 for students from Std I-VIII in the first language and in Mathematics as part of the Pragat Shaikshanik (progressive in education) to evaluate learning levels. This year's third round — summative assessment II — was pushed to April 10-11 owing to the Tuesday paper leak.
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