Mumbai: The state education board found only one case of malpractice - a student writing his or her name on an answer sheet - in the Mumbai division during the recently concluded SSC exam. By comparison, five malpractice cases were recorded last year.
However, there were 19 instances of misconduct reported during HSC exams - same as last year. In 13 of these cases, students were found carrying mobile phones inside exam halls. In four cases, students were found to have written unrelated content on answer sheets, while there was one case each of tearing pages from answer sheets and carrying answer sheets outside the exam halls.
Nitin Upasani, Chairman, Mumbai division, MSBSHSE, said that the board will soon conduct an inquiry into all the cases. "While mobile phones were recovered from some students, it doesn't appear that they were used for cheating in exams. We will however probe these cases further," he said.
In the run-up to the board exams this year, the state government carried out a 'copy-free exam' campaign to curb cheating and paper leaks. Despite heightened vigilance from the state, the Mumbai Police found that Class 12 Mathematics and Chemistry papers were leaked before the exam. While the police arrested five people from the city, two teachers, the source of the 'leak' was traced to be Ahmednagar-based Matoshri Bhagubai Bambare Agriculture and Science College.
As many as 3.45 lakh students had registered for HSC exam in Mumbai division, which includes the city as well as Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts, while the number of SSC candidates stood at 3.52 lakh.
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