Mass copying in Class 12 English exam at Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar school; staff on duty to face FIR & suspension

CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR/ PUNE: The first day of the state board's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam on Tuesday saw a case of mass copying emerge at Rashtriya Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Kannad taluka of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, with the staff on duty now facing FIR and suspension.

Education officer (secondary) Ashwini Latkar told TOI: "The process to file FIR against 16 supervisors, the centre head, two members of the sitting squad and a runner is on. They will all be suspended by Wednesday."

Acting chairperson of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Nandkumar Bedse said an inquiry into the incident was initiated and action against the students involved would also be taken as per rules and regulations.

"The education officer found students with photocopies of answers. Some were sitting close to each other and cheating. She reviewed the CCTV camera footage and took it into her custody as evidence. Since the state board has taken strict measures to ensure cheating does not happen, such cases will be exposed," said Bedse.

The said centre had 327 students appear for the English exam on day one. It will get new staff to supervise and conduct pending exams from Wednesday, said Latkar. She said, "It was not a sensitive centre. I was supervising randomly, when I noticed suspicious activity in this school. I checked the CCTV camera footage and found maximum unexplained actions in three classrooms. Other classrooms too showed dubious conduct. The supervisors and other invigilators were teachers from within the school and outside. The process to suspend them is on and the orders will be issued by Wednesday."

Meanwhile, a drone footage showing people near the windows of an exam centre in Beed district went viral on Tuesday, prompting the board to direct the relevant education officer to send an investigation report.

Beed collector Vivek Johnson said the drone was operated by the district education department after they learnt about a crowd near a school.

He said, "As seen in the footage, all windows were closed and the CCTV camera footage of inside the classrooms also didn't show cheating activity. The centre was not among the list of sensitive ones. We told the respective tehsildar to review the footage and CCTV camera recordings again to verify there was no untoward behaviour."

Bedse said, "There is no boundary wall around the school, which may have led to people closing in on the centre. However, our staff checked and there was no incident of cheating found."

In rural Jalna, official squads caught six students from three different exam centres while indulging in malpractice. Ambad tehsildar Vijay Chavan said checks were carried out at centres in Jamkhed-Rohilagad, Ankushnagar, and Shahagad, during which these students were caught red-handed.

Over 15 lakh students from nine divisions in the state — Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Latur, Amravati, Kolhapur, Konkan, and Nashik — appeared for the English paper from 11am to 2pm.

Meanwhile, MSBSHSE authorities once again requested candidates not to resort to unfair means while appearing for the Board examinations. "Success or failure in HSC or any other exam is not life-defining. Succeeding in exams using malpractice often proves destructive in the long term, as students fail to walk the future path of their career as per their talent and inclinations," state board authorities said.