Govt inquiry against college prof for ‘leaking’ questions in internal exam

Mumbai: A professor of a prominent south Mumbai college has come under fire for sharing multiple-choice questions and answers with his class before an internal examination conducted by the college in August

Mumbai: A professor of a prominent south Mumbai college has come under fire for sharing multiple-choice questions and answers with his class before an internal examination conducted by the college in August.

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Higher and technical education minister Chandrakant B Patil has ordered an inquiry and said that strict action should be taken against Jai Hind College professor Ashutosh Saxena, based on the inquiry’s findings.

HT has seen a copy of the memo with Patil’s directions to the secretary of his department to initiate the inquiry. Repeated attempts to reach Ashok Wadia, the college’s principal, went unanswered.

This incident came to light in the first week of August, when all CA1 exams for different courses were conducted by the college. When the issue was brought to Wadia’s notice, he sent a show-cause notice to Saxena, who accepted his “serious” mistake in a response on September 13.

CA1 or Continuous Assessment 1 exam is an internal exam conducted by the college for all courses.

Jai Hind College principal Ashok Wadia issued a memo to Ashutosh Saxena, assistant professor and head of the commerce department in August, which stated: “It has been brought to my notice that you had announced the MCQ (multiple choice questions) along with answers to the students in class which were compiled jointly with another professor, and these are the same questions that you had set for the CA1 (Continuous Assessment 1) exam. This is equivalent to leaking the question paper”.

“Giving out questions and answers to students in class and repeating the same questions in the exam papers is a serious compromise of examination standards,” the memo dated August 28 further stated.

It also warned the professor to be more responsible in the future and not repeat his action.

“You have been recently appointed as Head of Department (HoD), department of commerce. You have failed to understand your responsibility as HoD and for this academic year, you will be under strict observations related to your duties, failing which suitable action will be taken,” it added.

Refusing to divulge details, Saxena, who was recently appointed as the head of department of commerce, told HT that he was not the right authority to talk on this matter. “In my experience, teachers revise questions in classroom before every exam. But I will wait for the inquiry to happen because I cannot comment on this issue,” he said.