Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 25 Feb: The principal of Dirang Valley Public School, Tezi Ramadasow (41) was arrested on Friday in connection with the leakage of the state board’s Class 8 social science and science question papers.
When contacted, West Kameng SP Bharat Reddy informed that the arrest was made based on a report filed by Dirang Block Education Officer TN Tukshipa that a boy had confessed that he had received the question papers before the exam.
“Accordingly, an FIR was registered under Section 420/120 B at the Dirang police station, based on the evidence of the question papers sent by the principal to the student through phone, along with hard copies, which have since been seized,” the SP informed.
At the time of filing this report, it was learnt that three persons, including students and school authorities, have been detained. However, the SP did not reveal their names, stating that the names cannot be disclosed now as it might hamper the investigation of the case.
Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh State Board of Examination Chairman Otem Tayeng informed that the re-examination for the leaked papers will commence in March and the directives will be provided to all the DDSEs concerned.
This is the first time that such an incident has occurred since the introduction of the state board exams in 2017.
The examinations for Classes 5 and 8 had commenced on 17 February. While the Class 5 exam got over on 23 February, the Class 8 exam, scheduled for 23 and 24 February, has been cancelled due to the paper leakage issue.
Meanwhile, the Arunachal Teachers’ Association (ATA) has condemned the leaking of the Class 8 question paper by the principal.
“Such irresponsible act by a responsible person tarnished the image of the whole teaching community,” the ATA stated in a press release, and appealed to the administration and the department concerned to take action as per the law against the erring person.
The central executive committee of the ATA has asked its West Kameng district unit president to collect the details of the incident and submit the findings to the ATA for further action.
