Assam board Class 11 exams cancelled after paper leak; student bodies demand edu min's resignation
Guwahati, Mar 23 (PTI): All Class 11 examinations of the Assam state board from March 24 to 29, comprising 36 subjects, have been cancelled following reports of several paper leaks at different places, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said.
Demanding a proper investigation, leading student bodies such as NSUI, SFI, SMSS and AASU slammed the BJP-led Assam government and demanded Pegu's resignation and suspension of state board chief R C Jain.
Earlier, the Higher Secondary first year Mathematics paper, scheduled on March 21, of the Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB) was leaked, forcing the authorities to cancel the examinations and lodge a police complaint.
The Higher Secondary first year or Class 11 examinations began on March 6 and were scheduled to continue till March 29.
"Due to reports of question paper leak and breach of protocol, the remaining subjects of HS First Year Examination 2025 (scheduled from March 24-29) stand cancelled," Pegu said in a post on X.
Sharing the official order by ASSEB, he said further action regarding the new schedule of the examinations will be decided in a Board meeting on Monday.
In another post, the minister said the Mathematics paper was leaked after 18 schools, including three government institutes, across the state broke the security seal a day before the scheduled examination.
"ASSEB has suspended the affiliation of 15 private schools across 10 districts for breaking the seal of Class 11 Mathematics question papers before the scheduled time, leading to a leak. The state government will also take action against three other schools for violating the rules in a similar manner," he said.
Police complaints will be lodged and these schools have been barred from admitting Class 11 students for the 2025-26 academic year, Pegu said.
According to the ASSEB order issued by Controller of Examinations (in-charge) Ranjan Kumar Das, all inspectors of schools and principals of lead colleges had received back the sealed packets of Mathematics question paper following its cancellation.
"...from their reports, it is seen that some of the institutions had opened the sealed packets of question paper on 20/03/2025, whereas the examination was scheduled to be held in the second session of 21/03/2025.
"...it is presumed that leakage of question papers in the rest of the examination cannot be ruled out, as all the question papers of the remaining subjects were in the custody of each institution of Assam where examination was being held," it added.
Therefore, all the remaining subjects of HS First Year examination from March 24 to March 29 have been cancelled, Das said in the order.
Later, Das told PTI that an FIR has been lodged at the CID headquarters in Guwahati, while 18 other cases will be filed at respective police stations against the educational institutions.
"Out of the 18 centres, we believe that not all have leaked the papers. Probably only one or two centres leaked the papers and those went viral on social media. The culprits will be found after a detailed probe by the police," he added.
Last week, the Class 9 English annual exam in Assam's Barpeta district was cancelled after the question paper leaked on social media.
National Students' Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, said the paper leaks were the government's failure to protect the future of the younger generation.
"Despite repeated incidents of paper leaks, the administration has not taken adequate measures to prevent such occurrences. The consequences of these leaks are devastating. Lakhs of students who worked hard to prepare for these exams are left in a state of uncertainty," NSUI Assam president Krishanu Baruah told PTI.
"The government's inability to conduct fair and transparent examinations is a reflection of the deeper systemic issues that plague our education system. The youth deserve a government that prioritises their education, future and well-being," he added.
SFI state secretary Sangita Das alleged that question paper leaks have become a common occurrence under the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government.
"We went on a hunger strike in 2019 to protest the cancellation of question papers and demanded the resignation of R C Jain. Forget about reforms, the SEBA and the council were dissolved and a board was formed but no investigation was conducted against Jain. The corrupt official became ASSEB chairman again," she alleged.
In February last year, the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, (SEBA) and the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) were merged to create a new body -- Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB).
"Will the education minister take responsibility for such anarchy and resign? A high-level inquiry committee should be formed to investigate the matter and till then, Jain should be suspended and Pegu must resign," Das demanded.
Satra Mukti Sangram Samiti (SMSS) general secretary Pranjal Kalita claimed that the Assam government will set a world record in leakage of exam papers.
"Himant Biswa Sarma has been playing with the lives of students in Assam since he was the education minister. Now, he is doing the same as the chief minister. Education Minister Pegu must admit his failure and resign," he added.
All Assam Students' Union (AASU) president Utpal Sarma said maintaining confidentiality is the primary duty of any examination institution, but the ASSEB has failed to conduct the tests properly.
"We demand a proper investigation and exemplary action. The students must get justice," he added.
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Oath-taking ceremony of first BJP govt in Bengal on May 9; Modi, Shah likely to attend
Kolkata (PTI): The oath-taking ceremony of the first BJP government in West Bengal will be held at Brigade Parade Ground here on May 9, marking the saffron camp’s arrival in power in a state after decades on the political fringes.
The ceremony, scheduled to begin at 10 am, is expected to witness the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president Nitin Nabin, several Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP- and NDA-ruled states, party sources said.
“The new BJP government will take oath on May 9 at 10 am at Brigade Parade Ground,” state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya announced on Wednesday.
Even as the BJP leadership kept its cards close to the chest on the chief ministerial face, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari has emerged as a frontrunner in internal discussions after cementing his position as the party’s principal mass leader in Bengal politics.
Adhikari, once among Mamata Banerjee’s closest lieutenants and a key architect of the TMC’s rural expansion in districts such as Purba Medinipur, crossed over to the BJP ahead of the 2021 assembly elections and went on to defeat Banerjee in Nandigram in one of Bengal’s fiercest political battles.
Five years later, he again found himself at the centre of Bengal’s political churn by beating Banerjee in her own turf at Bhabanipur by over 15,000 votes.
Other names for the CM post doing the rounds include Bhattacharya, Union minister Sukanta Majumdar and former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, though party insiders indicated that the leadership was inclined towards projecting a “bhumiputra” face rooted in Bengal’s linguistic and cultural ethos.
During the campaign, Shah repeatedly asserted that the BJP’s chief minister in Bengal would be a “son of the soil”, born and educated in the state, in an attempt to blunt the TMC’s sustained attack that the BJP represented an “outsider” political culture alien to Bengal’s social and intellectual traditions.
The BJP bagged 207 of the 294 assembly seats in the recently concluded elections, ending the Trinamool Congress’s uninterrupted 15-year rule and scripting the saffron party’s biggest breakthrough in a state where it once struggled to open its electoral account.
Significantly, the swearing-in ceremony will be held on the 25th day of Baisakh in the Bengali calendar — observed across the state as Rabindra Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore — lending the event a deeper cultural symbolism.
According to BJP leaders, the choice of the date is aimed at embedding the party’s historic rise within Bengal’s cultural imagination and countering the long-standing perception battle over identity and belonging.
Over the last decade, the BJP has steadily attempted to appropriate and reinterpret icons of Bengal’s cultural nationalism — from Tagore and Swami Vivekananda to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Syama Prasad Mookerjee — as part of a broader ideological effort to expand its emotional and political footprint in the state.
Party insiders said the leadership was also conscious of the need to balance Bengal’s competing regional aspirations while choosing the chief ministerial face, with discussions also taking place around whether greater representation should be accorded to north Bengal, a region where the BJP has made substantial electoral gains over successive elections.
A meeting of the newly elected BJP MLAs has been convened on May 8 evening, party sources said, though the leadership remained tight-lipped over the final choice.
The Brigade Parade Ground ceremony is expected to mark not merely a transfer of power, but a defining moment in Bengal’s political history, the culmination of the BJP’s long ideological and organisational march from the margins to the centre of power in a state that had for decades resisted the saffron surge seen elsewhere in India.
