A decades old tradition institutionalised in the Indian academic examination process — from school board to university levels — is that answer scripts, once submitted, are never seen again by examinees. This tradition is being increasingly challenged in the eastern seaboard state of West Bengal (pop. 80 million) where the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front government has been ruling uninterr-uptedly since 1977. In 2008 two writ petitions were filed in the Calcutta high court challenging grades awarded by Calcutta University and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), and demanding that the respondents produce the answer scripts for inspection. Both CalU and CBSE refused and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) which endorsed their right of refusal, was joined as the third defendant.
While hearing the petitions of aggrieved students Pritam Rooj and Aditya Bandopadhyay, the court observed that it is possible “their losses are beyond repair — a valuable year has been lost or an employment opportunity sorely missed in these fiercely competitive times, thereby resulting in untold misery and harassment to them”. In an order dated February 5 the court directed CalU and CBSE to “grant inspection of the answer scripts to the information seekers/examinees concerned”. Instead of complying with the high court order, the defendants filed an appeal in the Supreme Court which granted a stay order. Since then the boards have declined to produce the answer scripts for examination.
According to WBBSE president Prof. Mamata Ray, the state board has already instituted a re-evaluation process. “If any candidates are dissatisfied with their grades they can apply to us for post-publication review and scrutiny. But our review and scrutiny decision is final and can only be challenged in court. If the court so directs, the board will show the answer scripts to the court, but not to aggrieved candidates. Moreover our post-publication rules are that scripts are stored only for six months. They are then disposed off, usually by burning.”
Given the huge logjam of the Indian legal system in which 25 million cases are pending, the case may drag on for decades in the Supreme Court “The important question of law adjudicated by the Calcutta high court will remain buried in the paper mountain of Supreme Court until the petitioners become grandparents,” laments Kanpur-based advocate Robby Sharma.
Yet evidently the petitioners’ efforts to introduce a measure of transparency into the country’s opaque examination culture has not been entirely in vain. Obviously influenced by the reasoned judgement of the Calcutta high court, on July 10 the autonomous Delhi-based Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), with which over 1,500 of India’s top private schools are affiliated, suo motu announced that the 200,000 students who write its ICSE (class X) and ISC (class XII) school leaving exams will be given inspection of their answer scripts. “The council is an autonomous body which doesn’t accept government grants. But it is also a public body and we don’t feel there is any harm in providing information to students and parents,” says G. Arathoon, deputy secretary of CISCE. “The credibility of the ICSE-ISC examinations process will improve.”
Nor is that all. in a first-of-its-kind initiative, the council is setting up a wing to field queries not just from students but also from those wishing to learn about its activities. A full-time information officer will be recruited for this purpose. “A committee of the council is examining the Right to Information legislation. The role and duties of our new information wing will become clear after the committee completes this exercise and submits its report,” says Gillian Rosemary Hart, a member of the council’s executive body and principal of the Welland Goldsmith School, Kolkata.
In the interests of transparency, justice and equity will WBBSE follow suit? “We will follow the education ministry’s directives,” says Debashis Sarkar, secretary, West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education, like a true CPM apparatchik.
Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)