GUWAHATI: Miffed at the circulation of HSLC results on social media over an hour before official announcement time, Assam education minister, Siddhartha Bhattacharyya has said an inquiry would be conducted into the matter and strict action taken against anyone found guilty.
Snapshots of the “result sheets” along with photographs of “candidates” were being circulated on Whatsapp groups nearly a couple of hours before the results were available on official websites at 9am.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Bhattacharyya said, “We will get to the root of this and also take the help of cyber cell of Assam police to investigate the matter. We will cross check and give exemplary punishment to the offender as such rumours can mentally traumatise students if the actual results turn out different.”
The minister also requested media houses to verify before publishing any news as too many rumours were being spread on social media of late.
Meanwhile, the pass percentage of High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) exam result conducted by the Secondary Education Board of Assam (SEBA) this year was 60.23, an increase of 4.19 per cent from last year.
The pass percentage of male students in the HSLC examination was 62.69 percent while that of female students is 57.99 percent.
“There are 289 schools out of 7000 in Assam of which there is not even a pass percentage of 0-9 per cent. Of these 37 are government schools, which is an area of concern and needs to be looked at in all seriousness,” the minister said.
The minister said he would request principals of schools to provide extra coaching to the students who could not pass so that they are able to clear the exam next year.
There are 2760 private schools in the state, of which 491 schools have recorded cent percent pass percentage in the exam this year.