THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The Government is planning to conduct separate Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations for regular and private candidates, Education Minister M.A. Baby has said.

Mr. Baby was replying to the notice given by K.C. Venugopal for an adjournment motion in the Assembly on Thursday about the mix-up of SSLC old scheme question papers at 41 examination centres.

Since regular candidates were more in number than the private candidates, the proposal was to conduct separate examinations. This year, there were 4,58,785 regular candidates, 31,825 private candidates and 14,591 candidates in the old scheme. This was the last chance for those appearing in the old scheme.

Examinations for regular candidates were being held without any disruption. There was a mix-up in the question papers of the old scheme students on Wednesday.

The question papers of chemistry were found in the packets labelled as history. The question papers were not distributed to the students and no one had seen them too.

It cannot be termed as a leak since none had derived undue advantage by having the papers in advance or made money by selling them.

Exam rescheduled

The Government has rescheduled the examinations on March 30.

It will be held from 9.45 a.m. to 12 noon.

The chemistry examination under the new scheme and private new scheme will be held as per schedule on Friday.

The printer has been blacklisted and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been informed about the lapse. The Education Department, in coordination with the Home Department, will probe whether there was any conspiracy in the mix-up.

Mr. Venugopal alleged that the credibility of the examination system was at stake.

He said the Government failed to honour its commitment to conduct the SSLC examinations in a foolproof manner.

The Government was trying to shield those responsible for the model examination question paper leak, Mr. Venugopal said.

Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy accused the Government of failing to act on the Crime Branch report on the model question paper leak.

He demanded action against those mentioned in the Crime Branch report. Following Mr. Baby's explanation, Speaker K. Radhakrishnan denied leave for the adjournment motion and the Opposition walked out in protest.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail