Class 12 eco retest on Apr 25, decision on 10th maths paper later: Govt

The re-examination of CBSE's Class 12th economics paper will be held on April 25, while a decision on conducting the Class 10th mathematics paper will be taken in the next 15 days, the government said today.

School Education Secretary Anil Swarup made the announcement after complaints that the question papers for the two subjects were leaked.

The economics paper will be held across the country, but the 10th mathematics paper, if needed, would be restricted to the Delhi-NCR and Haryana, Swarup told a press conference here.

The Central Board of Secondary Education had earlier announced that retest would held for the both the papers.

Given that the class 12 examination are very very important in the context of the future of a child, like for examinations that have to be taken and university admissions, the date for examination has been fixed at April 25, Swarup told reporters.

He said the re-test will be held only in India as there has been no leak outside the country.

As far as 10th mathematics examination was concerned, he said, according to a preliminary enquiry the leak was restricted to Delhi and Haryana and there was no evidence that other states were affected.

Hence a decision has been taken, if at all a re-examination has to happen (for 10th paper) it will happen only in DelhiNCR and Haryana after a detailed inquiry. A decision to this effect will be taken in next 15 days when more details become available, he said.

The exams would be held in July if a decision is taken to that effect, he said.

There was no time available for a very very detailed inquiry. We felt that time was running out, so we have to declare the time for examination (for 12th paper) considering its importance and necessity," Swarup said.

On a query over who was responsible for the lapse, he said the enquiry is being done at two levels. One, criminal enquiry by the police, and the other departmental inquiry to find out exactly what had happened.

Within a month, he said, the ministry hopes to know where the things went wrong and fix responsibility.

Once the final inquiry result comes to us, certainly action will be taken against whoever is responsible. But to prematurely come to a conclusion that so and so is responsible, I do not think that is the right way of going about it, he added.

Asked if there would not be such leak in the future, he said, No one can guarantee anything in this world." But added, "It would be our endeavour to see no leakage happens anywhere. We will try our best that no leak happens but you cannot guarantee that nothing wrong would happen in the future.

Asked if it was possible that the 10th paper leak remained restricted to Delhi-NCR in an age of social media and fast communication, he said, There are no perfect answer available."