MUMBAI: Following concerns of parents and teachers over striking similarities in the ICSE geography question paper and the prelims paper of the same subject at a Mahim school, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations has launched a probe. "We have received information about the paper and are already investigating the issue," said Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary, CISCE.

Over 1.59 lakh students across the country took the geography-HCG-Paper 2 exam on March 11 and were surprised to find that the paper was similar to the one given to students during their prelim exams at Bombay Scottish School, Mahim. The school's prelim exam for the subject was held on January 9.

For instance, the first question in both papers is - 'Give the four grid reference for a figure similar to the one given below. Identify the figure'. While there were many questions which were the same, there were a few which were similar. "About 90% of the paper is the same. The children are upset as students of a particular school are get at an unfair advantage in this way. Some students have written to the council regarding this," said the parent of a
class X student.

Prelims papers of most schools are often available at stationary stores or on websites. All schools submit their prelim exam papers to the CISCE. While school principal, Molly Paul, was unavailable for comment, a teacher from the school said the council often picked questions from prelims papers of various schools.