Kerala announces Crime Branch probe into govt school question paper leaks

Thiruvananthapuram (The Uttam Hindu): Days after the alleged leak of question papers for the second-term Christmas examinations in Kerala's state-run schools, the government on Monday announced a Crime Branch probe into the matter. The controversy erupted after question papers of the Class 11 mathematics and Class 10 English examinations appeared on a YouTube channel, and got huge traction. State Education Minister V.Sivankutty had then announced that he took the incident very seriously and the General Education department would do what was necessary. Subsequently, the General Education Department lodged a police complaint on this matter.

Sivankutty, when he came to know of this, said no one will be spared and the wrongdoers will be taken to task as this is seen as a blot on the otherwise foolproof examination system, fine-tuned over several decades. The Cyber Wing of the Kerala Police has already started a preliminary probe as it involves the alleged role played by a few private tuition centres, not to mention teachers attached to the state government schools. The task of preparing the question papers takes place at a workshop conducted by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). The general norm regards the preparation of question papers for every subject is that two sets of question papers are made for each subject, out of which one is selected and printed at a press outside the state.

Later, it is handed over to the respective district centres from where the school Principals collect them. With the advent of technology, the days when there was a huge competition among private centres which offered tuition and special classes for Class 10 students are gone and online tuition centres have taken over. The present alleged leakage of question papers is believed to be on account of the war between various online tuition centres.