Teacher transferred over ‘leaked’ paper

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 22

The Class X Hindi question paper of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) was allegedly leaked with the help of the phone of one of the teachers of Government Sports School, Ghudda.

Following an inquiry into the matter, a suspect, the PTE teacher from the school, has been transferred to another school in the district.

As per information, the District Education Department today received a call from a person who informed the officials that photographs of the Hindi question paper had been uploaded onto a WhatsApp group.

“I was intimated about the leak by the Education Department around 11.40am. I investigated into the matter. When we searched for the number which had been used to upload the question paper on the social networking platform, we found out that the number was being used by physical education teacher of our school, Pushpinder Pal Singh. He was on leave today and yesterday. We failed to contact him on that number,” school principal Bhupinder Singh said.

He said when the school authorities finally managed to speak to the teacher, he came to the school and presented a copy of an FIR, which he had got registered last afternoon regarding his missing mobile phone, before the inquiry committee.

“He claimed that he had gone to Dhobi Bazaar on Tuesday and lost his phone there. He then registered an FIR with the police. He also claimed that he was not responsible for the alleged leak and added that the act had been done with the aim to malign his image and career. Had he clicked the question paper with an intention to leak it, why would he have sent it to a WhatsApp group rather than sending it to a few people individually?” the principal asked.

Meanwhile, District Education Officer (Secondary) Khushvir Singh said while the inquiry was yet to be concluded, the teacher, who was on deputation at the Sports School, Ghudda, was sent back to his school of original posting in Parasram Nagar.

“During the inquiry, we didn’t find out any substantial evidence to conclude that the leaked paper reached the students. Since the paper was already halfway through by the time we got to know about the alleged leak, we decided to let the students continue writing the examination. We will inquire into the matter as we are yet to ascertain if the paper was leaked at all or it was just an attempt to sabotage the image of the teacher,” the DEO said.