AHMEDABAD: Last year teachers specializing in maths and English were made to check papers of science and social studies for classes X and XII board exams.

The next day a Hindi teacher who also took Gujarati classes, was appointed moderator for the English examination at one of the assessment centres in the city. This is how Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) plays around with the future of thousands of students, and their parents who put everything at stake to see good scores. Dig deep and you find this was not a mistake, but a state of helplessness. For checking answer sheets of 2.75 lakh English medium students in classes X and XII there are just 1,300 teachers. While for 55 lakh Gujarati medium answer sheets there are an approximate 18,000 teachers for paper checking. When the matter came to light, an embarrassed GSHSEB forced a school on Drive-in road to dismiss a Gujarati medium science teacher who was checking class XII English medium papers.

In another raid on a Paldi school the board reported a Gujarati medium social science teacher checking English medium subjects. When the board assessed the reason behind the lack of teachers reporting for checking English medium answer sheets, it came to know that most of the 420 English schools medium schools in the state are privately run and just 35 % teachers from these schools report for paper checking.

“There have been instances where names of deceased teachers were sent to the board as examiners,” says a senior education board officer. “The problem is that the board authorities have less control over self-financed schools. In grant-in-aid schools, orders issued by the board are followed more diligently, as they face the risk of cut in government grants for violating the rules,” adds the official.

The board made a detailed assessment of students and found the number of English medium students appearing in SSC exams had increased by a good 18 per cent, while Gujarati medium students grew by just 6%.