Teachers abetting unfair means in exam
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: March 04, 2025 -

OTHER than endorsing launch of investigation into the controversy centring on leakage of social science question paper in the on-going HSLC-2025 examination and extending cooperation, the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur (BOSEM) is left with no option as identifying others involved in the scam apart from the two already identified, and initiating stringiest form of punishment against those found guilty, are essential for fruition of the efforts and policies to promote quality education in the state.

Facing flak over leakage of question paper some 30 minutes prior to commencement of the examination, Ayam Thoi, who is the BOSEM controller of examinations, has assured fullest cooperation to the Cyber Crime Police in the latter's investigation into the case and apprehend everyone responsible for the leak, whereas the Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur has out-rightly demanded life sentence of the two primary suspects involved.

DESAM's insistence on life imprisonment of the accused persons might sound extremely harsh but taking into account that such controversies had also shadowed past competitive examinations conducted by either the BOSEM or the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CoHSEM), the guilty ones do not deserve any sympathy if the education system is to be cleansed and sanitised for realising the collective goal of quality education.

In case of leniency against the culprits even after confirmation of their involvement in aiding the young students in using unfair means to bring laurels to his/her school, then it would set a disturbing precedent.

Thus, under no circumstance the guilty ones should be spared but instead made to repent to deter their teacher colleagues from indulging in such unethical practice.

On its part the BOSEM has done the right thing by approaching and filing complaint at cybercrime police station without wasting much time which subsequently led to the cybercrime sleuths in founding up the two accused.

However, possibility of involvement of others in the scam cannot be ruled out, especially in the backdrop of stiff competition among the schools, private educational institutions in particular, to produce maximum number of rank holders, enhance profile of the schools and commercially thrive on increased enrolment of students.

The fact that one of the accused persons is founder of a school smacks of a clandestine syndicate possibly involving examination conducting authorities, educational institutions and individuals who establish schools and colleges solely for commercial purpose, and not to guide the students become responsible citizens of the future.

Moreover, other than hard work of the teachers and shrewdness of the administrators, there must be a reason for the near complete dominance by private schools in class X and XII examinations in the state compared to consistently poor show by the government school students.

Another unmissable aspect of such examinations is that the race for excellence is amongst established as well as recently setup private institutions, which were once the most-preferred private tuition centres in the state.

Therefore, as the DESAM pointed out, it is both unfortunate and questionable why someone who founded a school should get directly involved in leaking the question paper other than for enhancing profile of the school he owns through any means, unethical practice to be specific, and considering the students as mere commodities.