Some students of class 10 who cannot write simple spellings such as ‘friend’, ‘clever’, ‘fondly’, ‘tennis’ etc. including their own names excelled in GSEB English exam.
This came to light during a session conducted with more than 200 class X students. All these students were found cheating at various examination centers in Panchmahal district during the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Examination Board’s (GSHSEB) board exams.
This year, there have been 230 cases of mass copying during the GSHSEB exams and 96 cases from the 230 were caught and confirmed during the class X English paper. All the 96 caught cases were from the examination center of Kavali in Shehara taluka of Panchmahal district.
The hearing of the rest of the 130 cases was scheduled by the board after declaring the results of the board exams. Evaluators spotted striking similarities not only in the answers but also, in the mistakes before the suspected students were called for the hearing.
“Certainly this is a reason for concern for the state education department if such glaring copying cases are detected in language subjects which are otherwise considered to be easier than Maths and Science. This needs to be further investigated,” said a senior GSHSEB official of the examination branch.
By taking action against the students, the board has barred them from the exams for two to three years and now plans to follow a similar strict action against the teachers involved in the cheating.
“This year strict action will be taken against all those involved, right from teachers who assisted in mass copying to the center supervisors,” said GSHSEB chairman A J Shah.