JOIN USLeak of a question paper in Muddebihal, debarring of nine students and a mix-up in Dharwad and Chamarajanagar marked Day One of the SSLC examinations that began on Friday.
Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board Director Sumangala V said nine students were debarred for malpractices in the examination hall.
This included six students in Dharwad and one each in Chikkodi, Bagalkot and Kalaburagi.
In Shirol, a village in Muddebihal taluk, the question paper for Kannada was leaked within an hour after the beginning of the exam at Vivekananda High School. Officials said Girish Hadapad, the student who was debarred over the incident, passed on the paper to a person outside the hall through a window. The accomplice then took photos of the question paper and passed it on to others to prepare answer chits.
"The custodians and supervisors at the examination centre, including the principal, have been suspended pending inquiry. Similar action has been initiated against a route officer in Athani for allowing a student to sit inside a vehicle carrying the question papers," Sumangala said. She said that of the 8.5 lakh students enrolled for the exam, 26,799 were absent. "There have been no glitches in the examination process," she said.
Mix-up in exam
In Kundgol, 18 students who appeared for Kannada exam received the question paper that was meant for repeaters. By the time the matter was brought to the notice of the exam authorities, they had lost half the time.
When asked about the incident, officials in Dharwad DDPI office said, "The students were given additional time after the end of the deadline in compensation for the time lost over the mix-up."
Shashikumar D from the Associated Managements of English Medium Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) said that the mix up of question papers was not limited to Kundagol taluk in Dharwad district alone.
"I received reports of the same problem from three schools under Bangalore South. When I informed the officials they said they will take action. I want to know who will face action? They can't punish the invigilators for a mistake that has happened at the department level," he said.
Glitches in hall ticket
About 40 students were put in distress due to the mistakes in examination hall ticket in Chamarajanagar district with four of them not being allowed to write the exam.
Seva Bharati English Medium School on Chennipuramole Road was the exam centre for the private candidates. However, the examination hall ticket assigned the students to Seva Bharati Kannada Medium School on Court Road.
"Due to the mistake of the officials we arrived five minutes late at the exam centre. The
authorities there did not allow us inside saying that we were too late. We showed them the mistake in hall ticket but they refused to hear us and locked us out," students said.
Meanwhile, Transport Department Principal Secretary B Basavaraju, who interacted with the media after visiting a school in Malleswaram, said that traffic has posed a challenge for the process of carrying question papers to exam centres at congested areas like Whitefield.
"Traffic congestion has proved to be a problem as per the experience of the first day. We are thinking of starting the process earlier in such places to ensure papers reach the exam centres on time," he said.