Manipur govt orders probe into marks ‘reduction’ allegations in Class X exam

The Manipur government has ordered an enquiry into the alleged reduction of marks of a student who came fourth in the high school leaving certificate (HSLC) or Class 10 examination conducted by Board of Secondary Education Manipur (BOSEM), to “ascertain the facts and circumstances leading to the allegations,” officials said on Monday.

The enquiry will be conducted by a three-member committee headed by M Harekrishna, an IAS officer who is the Director of Census operations in the state. The other two members are Additional Director Dr Geetchandra of the state education department and W Chandrakumar, a retired state civil service officer.

“The committee shall submit its report within a period of one month from the date of issue of this order,” Commissioner (Education-Schools) H Deleep Singh said in the order issued on Sunday. “The committee will be free to device its own procedure for conduct of the enquiry.”

The committee was also assigned to make recommendations on ways and means to prevent such incidences in future examinations.

The matter came to light after the family of Archana Hijam of Catholic School, Canchipur who came fourth in the exam filed an RTI application due to doubt about the marks the student secured, secretary general Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) Shital Oinam said.

The DESAM also alleged that the Archana’s marks had been reduced and demanded that they be restored.

Experts and teachers who subsequently analysed the answer scripts provided after the RTI application, found that Archana was not given four marks each for Science and English subjects which would have made her the topper in the examination, Oinam said. He also demanded re-evaluation of the marks of first 25 position holders of Class 10 examination 2018.

The topper in the Class 10 board examinations secured 573 marks out of 600 while Archana secured 569 marks when the result was declared on May 25. Nearly 27,126 out of 37,351 students who appeared in the exams were declared successful with girls securing the top positions.