MCQ masters fail basic arithmetic

Ahmedabad: The 500 SSC students who scored full or very high marks in Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) paper but got zero in the descriptive exam were called by the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) for a hearing on Tuesday along with exam supervisors.
Only seven out of the 500 students were found not guilty of cheating as they could answer the questions posed to them.The results of 418 students were cancelled in one paper and the results of two in one paper.
After the hearing, the board decided to recommend cancellation of Choila in Aravalli, Bhikhapur in Chhota Udepur and Lambardiya in Sabarkantha as exam centers for the 2017 examination.
TOI was the first to report the mysterious case of 500 SSC students who had scored near full marks in the MCQ paper while scoring zero in descriptive paper. This had brought them to the attention of the board which began a scrutiny for cheating. Their results were withheld.
Officer on special duty in the GSHSEB, MM Pathan, said that except for the seven students who were found not to have cheated, the other students could not do simple addition problems.
"It was clear that they had copied to get great scores in the OMR paper which has multiple choice questions," said Pathan.
The board has also recommended action against 10 supervisors of the exam center who, however, had not accepted that they had helped students in cheating.
"The supervisors said that they had put extra effort all the year for students to score high marks in the OMR paper and this had borne fruit," Pathan said.