Kolhapur: A two-member committee investigating a viral social media video purportedly showing Std VI students from a school in Vidni village, Phaltan tehsil, handling Std X Marathi board exam answer sheets on Friday confirmed that the allegations were partially true.The committee, appointed by the Kolhapur division of the Maharashtra State Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, visited the school on Friday. According to its findings, the students seen in the video were indeed of Std VI, but they did come evaluate the Std X Marathi language paper answer sheets. The panel clarified that the students were only drawing red margin lines on blank sections of the answer sheets.Board officials have taken custody of all the answer sheets and said they will be re-evaluated by subject experts to ensure that no student suffers due to the incident.Rajesh Kshirsagar, chairman of Kolhapur division said, “We have found the teacher, identified as Vaibhav Shende, guilty of violating the confidentiality rule of exam paper evaluation. We have decided to freeze the honorarium to be paid to the evaluator for checking 125 board papers for Marathi subject. We have also written to the school administration to take disciplinary action against him.”A preliminary inquiry by the Satara education department had already indicated similar findings. The board’s team, comprising a serving and a retired grade-2 officer, recorded statements of the Marathi teacher and the girl students, and also collected CCTV footage from Feb 26, the day the video was recorded. According to officials, the footage was allegedly filmed by a school peon who was upset after not being appointed as a clerk.The Std X Marathi language exam took place on Feb 20, and answer sheets had been dispatched to the designated evaluator’s school. As per board rules, evaluators must check papers within school premises and during school hours, and are prohibited from taking them home.One senior official said, “The teacher admitted that he asked Std VI girls to draw red lines on the answer sheets to speed up his work. The evaluation was completed and the papers handed to the moderator. The board has now seized all answer sheets, which will be freshly reassessed to ensure no answers were incorrectly marked.”The panel would submit its written report on Saturday, following which action would be recommended against the teacher.
