Agra, May 17 (Inditop.com) First the B.Ed entrance test paper leak was traced to an employee of a publisher here and then the M.Ed question paper was also leaked. Dismayed academic and students say the incidents have tarnished the image of Agra as an emerging hub of technical and professional education.
The Agra University management is at a loss to explain how the M.Ed paper, scheduled for May 9, found its way to the market, the students are agitated and teachers are angry due to the additional work load as the exams will have to be conducted again.
“It is a university that has lost its direction with corruption eating into its vitals,” said educationist Hari Dutt Sharma.
With students spread over 250 affiliated colleges from Lucknow to Noida, Uttar Pradesh’s education structure is not able to keep pace with the demands of the times, Sharma added.
The B.Ed entrance test was cancelled just hours before it was to start May 5 and four people have been arrested in the state’s Farrukhabad district for their alleged involvement in leaking the question paper. An employee of an Agra publisher was identified as the prime accused among the four.
Lucknow University was scheduled to conduct the test for around 100,000 seats in different universities and colleges of the state. The test will now take place June 19.
In the M.Ed paper leak, a magazine published a model paper May 1 for the examination scheduled for May 9 that had more than 80 percent similarities with the original. The university cancelled the paper and set May 30 as the new date for the examination.
Agra University authorities are clueless about the leak, but preliminary investigations reveal a callous attitude on the part of the university’s examination department. However, no case has been filed with the police.
While the vice chancellor and registrar refused to comment, a university official said the vice chancellor had ordered an enquiry.
“The city has half a dozen big educational publishers who also publish educational guides. The university and other examining bodies get their papers printed at the publishers’ presses, as had happened in the case of the B.Ed paper leak,” said a retired academic, who did not want to be identified.
“The paper setters often fall to temptation and are lured by these publishers to also prepare model papers for their magazines and guides,” he said.
“The so-called educational guides, competition magazines are popular because they somehow manage to guess pretty accurately more than 50 percent of the papers for various examinations,” he added.
Student groups have demanded prompt and stringent action against the guilty as thousands of students have had to suffer for no fault of theirs.
“The question is has the university punished anyone so far? Has any action been taken against the publishers and printers?” asked Manoj Raghav, a student leader of the Vidhyarthi Parishad.
