Dubai - In the UAE, nearly 8,474 students appeared for the Grade 10 exam and 2,713 students appeared for Grade 12 test.
Published: Sat 31 Mar 2018, 7:13 PM
Grade 10 and 12 students following India's Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in the UAE could not believe their ears when they first heard that their re-exam over reports of a paper leak in India was cancelled. Most of the students said their original exam had gone well and the news of re-appearing was "really depressing".
On March 28, the CBSE announced that the Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics exams will be held again over reports of question paper leak. However, on March 30, the board announced that it would be conducting Class 12 Economics exams for all candidates "except students in CBSE schools located abroad". As regards the Class 10 Mathematics paper, the board said that since the initial probes revealed that the leak was restricted to the states of Delhi and Haryana, the re-exam will not be considered for any other state.
On Friday, Prakash Javadekar - India's Minister for Human Resource Development - tweeted that retest for Class 10 Maths will be conducted in Delhi and Haryana, only if investigation points to a large scale leak:
Ashok Kumar, CEO of Indian High School Dubai, said: "It's a great relief to students and the parents because they will be able to continue the training and other quality programmes they had plan for, without interruption."
Official statement from the Central Board of Secondary Education (Photo: Supplied)
Nathan Gomes, Grade 12 student of Our Own Indian School, Dubai, said: "I am thrilled to hear this news. My original exam had gone really well and I was ready to execute plans after the exams which I had prepared for nearly three months. When the CBSE announced the re-exam, we were in complete shock as all our plans would have to be thrashed. Moreover, university admissions would have to be pushed back. So I cannot explain my excitement. Let the culprits reappear, why should we suffer."
In the UAE, 8,474 students would have had to re-appear the Class 10 Math exam and 2,713 students from Class 12 for the Economics paper.
Aaron George, Grade XII, Our Own Indian School, Dubai, said: "I'm really thankful that the re-exam is cancelled as it would have been really difficult for the students to get back into the study routine. We had put our 100 per cent in the exam and it was hard for us to know that the exam was cancelled as re-exam meant our efforts were meaningless."
Anil Swarup, secretary, School Education at Indian Union Human Resources Development Ministry, reportedly said that the re-examination for Class 12 Economics paper will be held on April 25 in India. Swarup said the decision to conduct fresh exams won't affect the date of publication of the results which usually happens in May end.
According to Indian media reports, Swarup reaffirmed that 'no fresh test outside of India'.
Ecstatic Jagruti Dialani, Class 10, Indian High School, said: "It is such a relief to get this news. I cannot even begin to tell you what stress me, my friends and family went through. Firstly, I am not too fond of Math but still my exam went off quite well and I was happy that it was over. Secondly, we had all planned our holidays and due to this re-exam, we had to cancel all our plans. So I am super happy for this news. Thanks CBSE."
Feeling relaxed, Jafer Poovankara of Indian High School said: "Math is the toughest subject for me. The exam was pretty easy for me and I was relieved. I am taking Commerce for Grade 11 and it was goodbye to algebra and geometry. When I heard I had to repeat the exam, I was heartbroken."
The CBSE decision came as students and their parents took to the streets across India to denounce the question paper leak and, in some cases, demand the sacking of the CBSE head Anita Karwal. The leak and re-test has affected thousands of students and forced their families to postpone or cancel planned holidays.
saman@khaleejtimes.com
A timeline of the paper leak
> March 23 - The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in India receives a fax informing them that a coaching centre manager of west Delhi's Rajinder Nagar named Vicky was leaking the question papers of CBSE. The next day, the fax was reported to the Delhi Police.
> March 26 - Class 12 students appeared for Economics paper
> March 28 - A first information report (FIR) has revealed that the CBSE had received an e-mail on March 28 at 1.40am with 12 images of the CBSE Class 10 Mathematics paper, but the CBSE completely ignored the tip-off sent by a person yet to be identified, according to media reports.
Later on the day, the CBSE in India announced that the Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics board exams will be held again over reports of paper leak.
The leaked paper, circulated on WhatsApp, was initially sold off for Rs35,000, but the prices later dropped to Rs5,000, according to media reports. It is alleged that 1,000 students in Delhi may have accessed the paper.
> March 29 - Students in India held a protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar to demand a re-examination of all subjects as every paper had been leaked.
> March 30 - CBSE announced that there will be no re-examination for students outside India. Class 10 Maths re-exam will be held only in Delhi and Haryana.
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