We want justice: Students protest at Jantar Mantar against CBSE papers leak

Traumatised by the news of the re-exam, the students said the Board should take the accountability for the paper leak.

NEW DELHI: Students on Thursday protested at Jantar Mantar against the Class 10th Mathematics and 12th Economics examination papers of  Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) being leaked. Demanding justice, the students raised 'we want justice' slogans and said that either there should be re-examinations of all subjects or else there should be no re-exam.

Slogans like 'Stop playing hit and trial with our lives' and 'It's not the students who need a retest, it's the system', were also raised at the Jantar Mantar. Several students present at the protest said that almost all the papers had been leaked a day before the examinations. 

Bhavika Yadav, a Class 10 student of St Thomas School, said, "We were shocked after hearing the news of the re-examination. Why should we suffer just because a handful of students got the leaked paper before the examination?"

Ojasvy, echoed similar sentiments. "We have been under pressure right from the beginning of the session. We were relieved after giving the exam but it was just for one-and-a-half hours that we breathed the sigh of relief. Later we learnt from various news channels that we will have to appear for a re-examination which means studying the entire syllabus again," she added.

"Traumatised" by the news of re-exam, the students said the Board should take the accountability for the paper leak. "It is impossible that the Board was not aware of the leakage. They had been denying right from the word go the news emerged but, it seems, they had just been pretending to be in the dark about the paper leak. They should have cancelled the papers in the morning," another student said.

Meanwhile, the government has assured that tough action will be taken against those responsible for leaking the papers. "This is a very unfortunate development. Whoever is involved in the paper leak will not be spared. Police will soon arrest the culprits. We will not let students suffer because of this incident," Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also expressed his anguish over the incident. The PM reportedly asked the minister to ensure strict action in the paper leak case.

The CBSE has named a person behind the leak of examination papers. In a complaint to Delhi Police, the CBSE said that it received a fax on March 23 naming a person who runs a coaching institute in Rajinder Nagar area of the national capital.

(With PTI inputs)