Madhyamik results leak probe panel submits report

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, July 2, 2007
The process adopted for the publication of the Madhyamik results is not foolproof. The private agencies deployed to compile marks and prepare the mark sheets are not trustworthy either. This is the conclusion one has to draw going through the one-man committee report probing the leak of Madhyamik 2007 result to the electronic media. The joint secretary of school education, R.K. Ray, entrusted with the probe, submitted the report to school education minister Partha De on Monday.
“The report has pointed out that the agencies that do the computer compilation of the results may have been responsible for the leak. That is the only gap found in the whole process from where information may have been obtained by outsiders,” said De.
After evaluating the answer scripts the teachers write down the total marks obtained by each student and their roll numbers into three mark rolls. One mark roll is given to the head examiner of the subject while another one is preserved in the confidential section of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. The third goes to the computer section.
The Madhyamik board does not have its own computer section; hence an agency is hired which is given the responsibility of compiling the marks on the computer by typing in the individual marks in the result format. Ray in his report has asked the board to streamline its computing system.
Inquiries by HT, however, revealed that under no circumstances could results have been leaked without the board’s knowledge. The name of the agencies that compile the result is secret and only the highest board officials know about it. Hence an outsider wanting to obtain the result from the agency could have got the name and address of the agency only from the board. On being questioned, De, however, said, “This is a question whose answer we are trying to find out.”
This was the preliminary report. A detailed investigation on how the leak happened and which people from the board could have been involved in it will be submitted in two months’ time. “I admit there was a leak, as the marks shown by the TV channels later tallied. More investigation is required to establish how exactly it happened and who are responsible for it. As of now, we did not find anyone from the board responsible,” said De.
“In the confidential room, subject-wise mark rolls of every student is kept in separate lockers. If someone wants to find out about the marks obtained he will have to break open the lockers dedicated to all subjects one by one, find the marks roll, break its seal and read it. This is a very laborious process and the security is very strict in the confidential section,” said an official of the school education department.
But board officials cannot get a clean chit yet. The investigation now will look at various aspects of result publication. After compiling the results, the computer section (the agency) sends the CD of the result to the board, which then sends the results for printing. Hence the leak could even have happened from the result CD kept with the board or even from the printing section.mou.hindustanimes@yahoo.com