Last year a total number of 917 cases of copying were registered by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary School Education (MSBSHSE); but this year the MSBSHSE registered 328 cases in the first two papers itself! In other words, students are out-doing themselves, depending more upon cheat sheets than upon their memories.
It was noticed that all the cases were reported from the rural areas of the state, whereas there were no cases from Mumbai. Among the 328 cases, most came from the Konkan division of the MSBSHSE; Aurangabad and Nashik has the maximum number..
According to the MSBSHSE Act, the minimum punishment for a student caught copying or indulging in unfair means while giving the exams, is being banned from the exams for three years.
The chairman of MSBSHSE, Sanjerao Jadhav, said “We have increased the supervising and flying squads to ensure that more students don’t indulge in unfair means in order to pass their examinations. All the cases of copying have been registered from the rural areas and the hinterland, where students find the English subject very difficult to clear with good marks. Hence they resort to unfair means and indulge in the copying business and spoil their academic careers. All these 328 students have been banned from the HSC exams for the next 3 years.”
Jadhav added “All the cases were from the Konkan division and none of them were from Mumbai; the Mumbai students are still clean and none have been found using any unfair means as yet”.
Not that Mumbai has reason to crow. Though none from the city were caught copying in the first two papers, there are another five to go, and anything could happen!