CBSE exam scam in state exposed
Cries for quality education get a beating
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, March 16 2013 : Even as many student bodies and social organizations are trying to bring about quality education in the State, the attempt of some individuals simply trying to throw cold water over the whole effort has come to light from the conduct of Class X exam under CBSE at MM Higher Secondary School, Wankhei where a large number of students are appearing without admit cards.

The conduct of class X exam in schools under CBSE is normally done under two systems.

Under the first system, the exam is conducted directly by CBSE while in the other system; the school authority conducts the exam independently.

If the students got through the exam under the second system, he/she would be allowed to pursue their further studies and appear in class XII exam.

The certificate, thus, given by the school authority after clearing class XII exam is equivalent to the pass certificates of class XII given by CBSE.

Taking advantage of this system, many parents who consider it best for their children to appear in class X exam under CBSE made their way to the office of MM Higher Secondary School at Wangkhei.

However, as the school authority could not distribute admit cards to all the students applying for taking part in the exam, they were just provided roll numbers verbally and admitted to the examination halls.

All these under-dealings and many more came to light when Hueiyen Lanpao went to take first hand report of the prevailing situation in MM Higher Secondary School following complaints over the unfair manner in which the examination for Class X is being conducted.

On reaching the school gate, an undercover reporter of Hueiyen Lanpao came across many parents whose children are appearing in the said exam whispering among themselves over the large number of students coming to appear in the exam when not so many of them have been ever seen at the school before the exam.

Disguising himself as a family member of an appearing student, the undercover reporter joined a group of parents in their conversations and learnt that they (the parents) have given huge amount of money just to get their children appear in the exam and pass through easily.

They also conveyed apprehension over not providing admit cards by the school authority even after payment of huge amount.

Desperate to know the whole truth behind the scam, the undercover reporter went inside the school office, where he was attended by a man who claims himself to be the founder of the institution.

On being enquired about the issue, the 'founder' brought out a number of admit cards without photos of the students attached to them and said that issuing of admit cards had been withheld since the students have not cleared their fees and outstanding dues.

As soon as the dues were cleared, the admit cards would be issued to them, the 'founder' assured.

The self acclaimed founder of the school further revealed that since the exam is not conducted by the State Board and no student from other schools are allowed to appear in the independently conducted CBSE-class X exam, only the registration numbers are supplied to the students.

"Since this is not a Board conducted exam, the students cannot leave the school after the passing the exam.

They have to get themselves enrolled in the school and appear in the Class XII exam as well.

So there is not much importance of the admit cards being issued or not in this exam", he maintained.

When asked about the total number of students appearing in the class X exam, the self acclaimed founder refused to answer saying he does not know the exact number.

While the undercover reporter was busy speaking to the 'founder', a lady staff of the school, who probably had been listening to the whole conversation and got suspicious of the kind of questions being asked by the undercover report, came out and said that if the whole matter was to be published in newspapers, then the faults of all other schools conducting similar examination should be investigated and published together instead of singling out MM Higher Secondary School alone.

Interacting with this undercover report, the parents of a student appearing in the exam confided that "the agents who have collected money from the parents must not have given the shares of the school and as such the students have not been given their admit cards" .

When what the self acclaimed founder of the school had said about withholding issuing of admit cards was conveyed to the parents, they said that all the required amounts have been paid already to the agents.

A student who came out of the school after giving his exam also said that he had paid Rs 10,000 to one Surbande from Kakching to appear in the class X exam from MM Higher Secondary School.

Before coming to appearing in the exam, he had never visited nor seen the school.

The student, who obviously did not have any idea that he was talking to an undercover reporter, further disclosed that on the first day of the exam today, all the students were allowed to sit in the examination halls irrespective of whether they have admit cards or not.

But the school authority has made it clear that no student without admit cards would be allowed to appear in the exam from Monday onwards.

The present examination scam in MM Higher Secondary School is, in fact, a cruel reminder of an earlier case in which students admitted to schools popping up out of nowhere were allowed to appear in the class X examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education Manipur (BSEM) with the help of some 'agents', who acted as saviors for all those students who do not want to study but get high marks in exam, for we live in a society where marks count more that merits of an individual.

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