While there were no major incidents of cheating during the recently concluded Higher Secondary Certificate and Secondary School Certification examinations, a maximum number of such incidents were reported from Aurangabad and Latur city this year. A total of 17 lakh candidates had taken the SSC exams and 14.91 lakh candidates took the 12th Class exams that were conducted between February and March this year. Of the total 230 cases of cheating reported during HSC examinations, at least 83 involved students appearing under Aurangabad city, followed by Latur (51). Similarly, 153 copying cases were recorded from the Aurangabad division during SSC exams, followed by Nagpur (25) and Latur (20) divisions. According to the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, more cases of cheating were recorded 366 cases during the 10th Class examinations.
“This year, MSBSHSE flying squads and vigilance teams were on their toes and managed to keep all kinds of malpractices in check,” an official said. Maths and science subjects saw the maximum number of cheating cases during 10th and 12th class examinations, board officials said. More than 50% cheating cases in these subjects were observed from Aurangabad and Latur districts during the examinations, they said. Besides, all the cheating cases reported during 12th Class psychology (5) and Sanskrit (4) examinations involved students from Aurangabad.
Language papers saw least cases of copying, board officials said. Unlike the two previous years, cases including misuse of mobile phones or social media, like WhatsApp, to leak question papers before exams were not reported during the 2019 examinations, except one incident recorded from Bhiwandi, Mumbai, where question papers of two subjects of the SSC examination were sold to students.
In Nagpur, police had busted a gang involved in tampering with the bar codes on answer sheets and misrepresenting real candidates at the exam centres. Some of the subjects that reported highest cases of copying during the HSC examinations were biology (70), sociology (24) and bi-focal paper-II(10), mathematics (59), bi-focal paper-I (50). Whereas, for the 10th Class exams, maximum cases of cheating were reported in mathematics paper -II (95), social science paper-I(61), science paper-II (52), science paper-I (69) and mathematics paper – I (37).
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