Students return home after the last day of board exams in Rourkela on Thursday. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Cuttack, April 26: Around 10,000 students were caught adopting unfair means in the annual high school certificate examination, which concluded today. There were reports of guardians supplying chits to their wards at some centres.

This was the first time that such a large number of students were caught cheating by inspection squads at various exam centres across the state. Last year, around 7,000 matric examinees had been booked for malpractice.

Official sources said around 5,796 regular students were booked for malpractice till yesterday and 573 students were caught cheating on the last day of the exam.

Besides, the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) has also recommended disciplinary action against 15 invigilators and six centre superintendents guilty of misconduct and abetting malpractice.

Earlier, 3,643 students had been found adopting unfair means during exams for ex-regular candidates this year.

“A large number of students have been booked this time. Malpractice has become a social disease and a lot of guardians are encouraging their kids to follow the wrong path,” said Satyakam Mishra, BSE president, adding that there were reports of guardians supplying chits to their wards during exams at various centres.

According to the data available with the board, around 2,046 students were booked for malpractice in 2010.

For the previous years, the number of candidates resorting to corrupt practices stood at 3,077 in 2009, 4,768 in 2008 and 3,177 in 2007 and 3,202 in 2006.

On the other hand, the examinees heaved a sigh of relief with the second round of exams having concluded without any hitch.

The exams, which had initially begun on March 19, had been suspended after question papers of seven subjects were stolen from a high school in Kakatpur, Puri.

This incident had led to the cancellation of the English examination held on March 21 and rescheduling of the remaining papers.

As a result of the disruption in exams, approximately 4.56 lakh regular students had been affected. The second round of exams commenced from April 17 and ended today.

Mishra said the board was taking adequate measures for publishing the results as early as possible. The evaluation of answer sheets would also be speeded up.

“We are planning to start the evaluation of answer sheets from May 1 and hope that the results of the exam will be published by the last week of June or first week of July,” said BSE secretary Nihar Ranjan Mohapatra, adding that around 21,000 teachers will be engaged in the evaluation to be done at 71 centres across the state.