In what is a sad critique of the education system, and a shocker often unheard of, two students of a local school here were allegedly forced by their invigilators to pass around their supplement, so other kids could copy from it.
Invigilators at the Daffodils English School located in Sanjaynagar forced two students to hand over their main answer sheet to the invigilators who then proceeded to hand it over to other students to copy from. When one student protested, he was threatened to stay quiet, an experience that has left him afraid of writing the remaining exams, his parents said.
According to the boy's mother, he had appeared for SSLC exams at Kamala Girls High School. "My son who is appearing for the exams said that as soon as he wrote few pages, an invigilator came and insisted that he share the answer sheet with other students. However, initially he said 'no'. The invigilator then said that the other students were poor and insisted that my son help them. My son then said that they were free to come and sit next to him to copy his paper but could not hand it over. The invigilator then called another male staff who threatened my son with dire consequences if he failed to share his sheet."
He added that he would cancel the student's paper with red ink which led him to panic and hand over the paper. "After it was circulated, the staff returned the paper by throwing it at my son. He is distressed and did not attempt questions for 16 marks. He is also not willing to go back for other exams," she said.
Another parent who heard of a similar incident from their child raised the issue with the school and took it up with the Block Education Officer. Later on Monday evening, the parents of one student got in touch with Sumangala V, director (exams) of Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board and narrated the incident.
"One parent has filed an oral complaint about the incident at Kamala Girls School and I will inform the BEO to look into the matter. We will ensure that the invigilator will not be deployed at the centre," she said.
