AHMEDABAD: As many as 1,655 students of Class 12 (general stream) from two centres, 38km apart in Dahod, chose one essay of the two in their Gujarati exam — “Vasant no Vaibhav” (the glory of spring).
This raised eyebrows and ultimately it was determined that mass copying had occurred at the two centres where all students wrote stereotypical answers and the essay from a guidebook. It is learnt that their parents had provided the answers from the guidebook.
Sources in the state education department said that mass copying had occurred in Pipero and Dasa in Dahod.
“The assessors found that too many students had written the same answers and all of them seemed to have even attempted to answer the questions in the same pattern,” said a source in the education department. “This issue was brought to the examination reform committee which analyzed the papers and found that 1,655 students were involved in the mass copying case.”
The committee checked CCTV footage, took the statements of the examination-room observers, and questioned the students too, but did not find any clue for a long time.
Last week, the committee again called the students and grilled them. This time, some students told the members of the committee that their parents had helped them write the answers.
“Some observers of the two examination centres might have been involved in the mass copying case,” the source said. “But the state government is yet to initiate any action against the guilty.”
This mass copying incident is similar to the ones involving the Jam Kandorna centre in Rajkot where irregularities had surfaced in 2010 and 2011. About 2,100 students’ results were withheld as they were found to be involved in cheating.
