In yet another goof-up by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) on Saturday, Class-8 students at examination centres in Ludhiana, Sangrur and Mohali found the first page of their science question papers-cum-answer sheets missing.
Information of students, including their names, roll numbers and subject, besides marks awarded, are written on the page that was missing from the booklets.
In Ludhiana, district education officials directed the students to write their details on the top of question papers that come attached with answer sheets.
The problem was witnessed at three examination centres in Ludhiana — Government Senior Secondary School in Lubangarh, Government Senior Secondary School in Hambowal Bet and Government Senior Secondary School (Girls) in Macchiwara — where at least 200 students appeared in the exam.
A government schoolteacher, requesting anonymity, said, “I was surprised when I opened the packet and found the first page missing. The students were asked to attempt the paper and write their names and other details in the end. The higher authorities would term it a printing error, but such issues are serious in nature, which must be avoided during final examinations.”
Ludhiana deputy district education officer (secondary) Ashish Kumar said, “Three schools informed us about the issue. The exam started on time at all the examination centres in the district.”
{{/usCountry}}Ludhiana deputy district education officer (secondary) Ashish Kumar said, “Three schools informed us about the issue. The exam started on time at all the examination centres in the district.”
{{/usCountry}}SCERT director Inderjit Singh said, “We will look into the matter and find out who was responsible for it. It can be a printing error.”
Chaos at 5 schools in Sangrur
Five schools faced the issue in Sangrur, which caused harassment not only to students, but examination staff too.
“We managed the situation as students wrote their roll numbers on the next page and completed their exam,” said Paramjit Singh, district examination controller.
“The problem also occurred in other districts, but it was handled by staff,” he added.
This comes two days after hundreds of Class-8 students in half of the state had received Punjabi question papers instead of the scheduled exam of social studies on Thursday.
The SCERT had then claimed that the goof-up happened at the end of the private firm which printed the question papers.