There was some confusion on the last day of the Class X State board half-yearly exam, as word about an alleged question paper leak in one of the districts in Tamil Nadu spread.
A school education department official confirmed that the examination had been postponed to Thursday, January 10.
“There were reports about a question paper leak in Virudhunagar, and we did not want to take a chance. We have postponed the examination and will look into what has happened,” the official said.
According to a principal of a matriculation school, they were given the social science question papers in the morning, but were asked to wait for further instructions by the district education officer. “We were told that the examination has been rescheduled to January 10,” she said.
A class X student said that her school made them write a regular test instead.
The half-yearly examination which began on December 19 was split before and after the Christmas vacations. From this academic year, the system of common question papers for classes X and XII for both the quarterly and half-yearly examinations were introduced. Though the idea was to set common standards and help students overcome the fear of board examinations, schools said that it required better planning as their academic schedule gets disrupted in case of a delay or rescheduling.
Students, however, found the question papers helpful, and said that it gave them an idea of how the final examination would be.
On the first day of the quarterly examination held in September, several schools reported shortage of question papers.
