Paper Leak in Assam: SEBA’s Lackadaisical Response Amplifies Public Discontent

Students in Assam who were preparing for their class X board examination paper were in for a rude shock. The night before, some of them found out that the exam had been cancelled. Some even turned up at the examination centres unaware only to find out they have to return without writing the exam. This has been one of the anomalies marring the conduct of the class X board examination by the Secondary Education Board of Assam.

On March 12, students and parents found out at night that the General Science exam to be conducted on March 13 had been cancelled. By the time the news came out, many students had gone to sleep. The cancellation followed a paper leak, but not the first one this year. On March 16 as well, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma tweeted at around 10 p.m about the cancellation of another paper – writing in Assamese.

Earlier, at the Ganirgram Examination Centre in Cachar district, the English examination was cancelled due to a similar incident. The story does not end here. The first paper of the class X board was reported to have been leaked within a few minutes of the start of the exam. Again, for the second paper, a leak was reported within a few minutes of the start of the exam, according to the Assamese media outlets. The SEBA did not respond to these claims before the cancellation order on March 12.

“I had to tell my son at midnight about the cancellation of his paper the next morning and he was shocked. My son is now worried about whether all the previous papers that he appeared for are okay. Board exams anyways bring a lot of stress for the students; can the government imagine what will be the psychological conditions of the students with such incidents? It can’t even organise an examination properly,” complained Santanu Borthakur, a noted lawyer at the Gauhati High Court.

There has been widespread public discontent with many organisations protesting against the leaks including the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), All Assam Students Union (AASU), and the opposition parties.

Meanwhile, State Education Minister Ranoj Pegu told local media that paper leaks have happened as early as 2006 and this year, it happened “unfortunately”. Piyush Hazarika, another cabinet minister said that whoever committed the crime will suffer for their “sin”. One MLA remarked that it is simply a question paper leak; the country has not been sold.

However, because of the widespread public anger, the case was immediately handed over to the CID. The CID, in its purported attempt to display quick action, arrested 22 including minors, a headmaster of a school, and others. In a viral photo, two minors were seen in handcuffs. Manoj Goswami, an eminent journalist, writer, and editor-in-chief of the leading Assamese daily Amar Asom, in his Facebook post, criticised the police for their conduct. “They are not dreaded criminals, nor even prime accused in the incident and are minors. There are clear guidelines by the Supreme Court about who should be handcuffed and when. Are these followed by the Assam Police? If they are proven innocent in court, then? Are not you turning some common students into criminals?” questioned Goswami.

A SYSTEMIC FAILURE?

Notably, SEBA has had a long history of controversies even before the recent leaks. NewsClick approached Shantikam Hazarika, who is an ex-chairman of SEBA (from 2011-2013). Hazarika shared what he had to face during his tenure as the SEBA chairman.

“During my days with SEBA, I came to know how bribery helped in passing and securing desired marks. But there is no evidence for this to prove this in a court. This was actually done by a lobby inside SEBA. Knowing this, I introduced technology in the whole process; the marksheets were computerised in 2012 for the first time. Earlier, it was all manual, which had many loopholes. But this also could not stop the corruption; the same lobby used to tie up with the firm that handled the computerisation and managed to take bribes for marks. This, I realized later and again introduced something new in 2013. This time, they failed. And they started a conspiracy against me. I left the place in 2013,” claimed Hazarika.

“See, what happened this year cannot be anything other than an organised conspiracy. The question papers are printed in the designated press and they go to the police stations across the state before reaching the examination centres. Then, there are three sources where the leak can take place – one is the press itself, but the chances are minimal as the press is concerned about its reputation. The other source of the leak is the police station where the papers are stored. I think the chances of leaks from the police station are also not high. Then the third source remains, which is certain people inside SEBA having access to the papers,” Hazarika added.

Commenting on the chronic anomalies, he said that it is a collective failure of society. “Now with the coming of the NEP (New Education Policy), there won’t be board exams in class X. What will happen to SEBA then and what will happen to the employees there?” Hazarika asked.

Paresh Malakar, an ex-member of SEBA seconded Hazarika and said, “The government should also be questioned here. What is happening this year is unprecedented. At this time, everyone in the country is witnessing diminishing rule of law and morality in the governance and politics of the ruling party. How can that not reflect in the functioning of the government institutions? Can the chronic problems in conducting examinations be solved with such a framework? Ultimately, it’s a democratic process.”

“The current SEBA chairman and secretary have to be brought into investigation and the CID should not restrict to arresting the small players only,” Malakar added emphasising the need for an impartial investigation.

Notably, the present SEBA chairman, R C Jain, has also drawn criticism against this backdrop. According to the rules, a chairman is appointed for three years which can be extended up to another three years as an extension. Jain has been the chairman for the past seven years. CM Sarma, on the other hand, has for the first time admitted a lapse in the system three days after the leak.