The Opposition Congress on Monday staged a protest outside the Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB) here over the suspected question paper leak that led to the cancellation of all Class XI examinations that were to be held from Monday to March 29.

The protest organised by the party’s city unit was led by former MP Ripun Bora, Guwahati district president Gopal Sharma and senior spokesperson Debabrata Bora.

They flagged the “inability” of the state government to conduct examinations without lapses while seeking the resignation of the education minister Ranoj Pegu and ASSEB chairman R. C. Jain.

The ASSEB cancelled all the examinations from March 24 to 29 on Saturday, a decision driven by reports of an “alleged leak” of the Arithmetic paper on March 20, a day before the examination was to be held, leading to the postponement of the paper and subsequent cancellation of all exams fearing possible leak of the remaining question papers.

According to sources, the ASSEB held a meeting on Monday where orders were issued to the Controller of examinations to set fresh question papers for the remaining examinations. However, no date has been finalised for the remaining exams.

The protest saw the deployment of the police contingent to ensure order. Bora alleged that the BJP-led state government had “destroyed” the education system impacting lakhs of students with the inability to conduct an examination.

The Guwahati DCC also submitted a representation to the chief minister through the police at the protest site seeking the resignation of Pegu and Jain over the paper leak.

“The repeated question paper leaks... over the past four years have exposed gross mismanagement and failure to maintain the integrity of Assam’s education system. We have also seen regular teachers’ unrest, inability to appoint adequate teachers and many other issues crippling the education system. Despite multiple incidents, no concrete action has been taken to prevent such breaches. We demand stern actions on all of these issues,” the representation said.

“We demand their immediate resignation and a thorough investigation into the repeated lapses. The future of Assam’s students cannot be compromised any further,” the representation said.