SHILLONG: Hit by a spate of question paper leaks, the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) will now observe strict rules with regard to the upcoming Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) and Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate (HSSLC) examinations scheduled to start shortly.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Friday, MBOSE Deputy Chairman M. Marbaniang said, “The papers will be kept under double lock and key.”
Asserting that the Board would maintain a tight grip on the question papers to prevent leakage, he said that the question papers will be placed at the disposal of police stations or banks, where the questions papers are kept secured in locked boxes with a sealed lock, which are then handed over to the officer in-charge and kept in the strong room of the police station which is under lock and key.
“The teachers concerned will fetch the packets after they have entered their names in the register complete with date, time and signature at the concerned police station or bank while the other packets of later subjects will be brought back to the strong room,” Marbaniang said.
The procedure will have to be followed at every shift as well, apart from daily transporting the papers destined for various examinations centres one hour before the scheduled start of the examination.
Commenting on the recent leakage, he observed that some principals were responsible for the leakage. “The papers were kept in the closet which may have contributed to the leakage,” he added.
Following the leakage of question papers which took place in East Khasi Hills, East Jaintia Hills and West Jaintia Hills, a two member enquiry committee headed by Marbaniang investigated the same and submitted its report on December 15, 2015 to the MBOSE Executive Director, E.P. Kharbhih.
The report mentioned that carelessness of some coordinating officers of the deposit centres in handling the packets resulted in the leakage.
