CBSE Re-Exam Dates Announced; Class XII Economics On April 25, Decision On Class X Maths Paper Later
CBSE Re-Exam Dates Announced
The re-examination of CBSE's Class XII Economics paper will be held on April 25, while a decision on conducting the Class X Mathematics paper will be taken in the next 15 days, the government said.

School Education Secretary Anil Swarup made the announcement after complaints that the question papers for the two subjects were leaked.

The Economics paper will be held across the country, but the Mathematics paper, if needed, would be restricted to the Delhi-NCR and Haryana, Swarup told a press conference here.

The Central Board of Secondary Education had earlier announced that retest would be held for both the papers.

Given that the class XII examination is very important in the context of the future of a child, like for examinations that have to be taken and university admissions, the date for examination has been fixed at April 25, Swarup told reporters.

He said the re-test will be held only in India as there has been no leak outside the country.

As far as 10th mathematics examination was concerned, he said, according to a preliminary enquiry the leak was restricted to Delhi and Haryana and there was no evidence that other states were affected.

Hence, a decision has been taken, if at all a re-examination has to happen (for 10th paper) it will happen only in Delhi NCR and Haryana after a detailed inquiry. A decision to this effect will be taken in next 15 days when more details become available, he said.

The exams would be held in July if a decision is taken to that effect, he said.

There was no time available for a detailed inquiry. We felt that time was running out, so we have to declare the time for examination (for 12th paper) considering its importance and necessity," Swarup said.

Within a month, he said, the ministry hopes to know where the things went wrong and fix responsibility.

Once the final inquiry result comes to us, certainly action will be taken against whoever is responsible. But to prematurely come to a conclusion that so and so is responsible, I do not think that is the right way of going about it, he added.

"We have to go by the information that we have. We have been reliably told that it was limited to Delhi-NCR and Haryana. We have to take best possible decision given the information available to us,” Swarup pointed out.  

He said the immediate concern of the government is that unnecessary suffering is not caused to children because of somebody other playing a bad trick.

Messages were received by the ministry related to the paper leak and each of them was examined, he said. In large number of the cases, he said, it was found that the papers purported to have been leaked were not the original ones.

On a query over the CBSE chief receiving an mail ahead of the date of examination requesting to cancel the test, he said the e-mail was received at 1.29 am on March 28, the day of the test.

When asked about the police inquiry, CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal, who was also present at the press conference, said she was not questioned by them but "they were trying to understand the process".