Thiruvananthapuram: The government has cancelled the SSLC mathematics examinations held on March 20 and decided to conduct re-examinations from 1.45 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. on March 30 in view of the leakage of the question paper. This was decided at an emergency meeting convened by education minister C. Raveendranath with DPI K.V. Mohan Kumar and Pareeksha Bhavan secretary K. Imibichi Koya on Saturday. A high-level inquiry into the leak will be conducted by general education secretary Usha Titus.
Pareeksha Bhavan has submitted a report to the DPI that 13 questions in the mathematics paper were copied from the model question paper for SSLC published by a private agency Malabar Education Research Institute (MERIT) based at Thottumukkom, Areekode. The inquiry report pointed out that the question paper setter had close relations with this tuition centre. He was even given a reception by the agency last academic year. In such circumstances, it was concluded that the 13 questions were leaked to the students who got tuition at the centre.
Many students of the tuition centre had got A-plus in mathematics in the last SSLC examinations, the report pointed out. While 11 questions were directly copied by the question setter, two were copied with amendment. A proposal in favour of school teachers themselves setting questions for their respective papers has come up following the controversy surrounding the recent SSLC and Plus-Two examinations. The government had proposed that high school teachers should set question papers for SSLC examinations and higher secondary teachers for Plus-Two. At present, college teachers have been setting questions for Plus-Two and higher secondary teachers for SSLC.
