The Central Board of Secondary Education has acknowledged “few instances” of delays at some Class 10 and Class 12 board examination centres on Monday morning, but attributed them to the nationwide shutdown called by Dalit organisations.
While Class 12 students appeared for their Hindi, Gujarati, Nepali and Kashmiri exams on Monday, Class 10 students wrote their Sanskrit, French and Urdu papers.
Scroll.in had earlier reported that the exams were delayed at some centres in New Delhi as they did not receive the question papers on time. After two exam papers were leaked last week, the CBSE informed centres of a new system to deliver question papers through email for Monday’s exam. When some schools expressed worry, CBSE officials had told them that they could go ahead with the existing system too.
In a release on Monday evening, the CBSE said the exams took place “without a hitch” and urged people not to pay heed to rumours.
“In few instances at some centres in the country, the exam was delayed by a few minutes to half an hour due to the bandh,” the board said. “However, the students were facilitated to reach the exam centres and also given additional time to complete the exam without any inconvenience or anxiety, as per standard procedures.”
The exams, however, were postponed in Punjab because of the planned protests by Dalit organisations against a Supreme Court order on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Nine people were killed and hundreds detained as violence broke out in several states during the protests.
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