Mizoram Congress committee condemns state's education minister's inaction over paper leak case

Following the Mizoram Government's suspension of a school teacher for allegedly leaking the High School Leaving Certificate question paper on Monday, the Mizoram Pradesh Youth Congress Committee (MPYCC) and the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) on Wednesday strongly condemned the Education Department Minister Dr Vanlalthlana for not living up to his responsibility as a Minister.

At a press conference held at Aizawl Press Club on Wednesday, the MPYCC and the NSUI stated that it is most unfortunate that the question paper on Social Science had leaked out during the ongoing High School Leaving Certificate examination. 

At the same time, they also condemn the Education Department Minister Dr. Vanlalthlana for not taking up his responsibility as a minister and exerting extreme punishment on the teacher.

Their statement highlighted that though there is a Malpractices Act 1990 under the Mizoram Board of School Education that will take necessary action against the accused teacher, the Minister had taken the extreme step of submitting an FIR to Aizawl PS C/No. 82/24 dated 10.3.2024 and that the accused had been arrested under IPC 409/417; which they stated could harm the moral and peaceful working environment in the future.

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MPYCC and the NSUI expect the Minister to make a statement which will bring back a sense of security to students.

As reported earlier, the Mizoram Government on Monday suspended a school teacher for allegedly leaking the High School Leaving Certificate question paper and Education Minister Dr Vanlalthlana at the Assembly Session on Monday stated that one Social Science teacher has been suspended during the ongoing High School Leaving Certificate.

The Minister added that the Mizoram Board of School Education immediately launched an investigation when on various social media platforms, there were rumours that many of the Social Science questions for the examination held on March 8 were similar to the suggestions given by a prominent school teacher in Aizawl.

Upon further investigation, Mizoram Secondary School Teachers' Association (MISSTA), the principal of Mizo High School where the rumours started- some students, and the suspected teacher, it was found that the teacher, confessed to providing board exam questions as suggestions to some academically weaker students during extra classes, and that these students had noted down the suggested questions in their notebooks, which served as evidence, Vanlalthlana said.

It was also learned that the suggested questions were not widely circulated as the special class was attended by only a few students and that all the 10th-standard students of Mizo High School did not receive the suggestion.