Mumbai, Oct. 12 -- The Progressive Assessment Test (PAT) question papers for Mathematics and English went viral on social media before the exam began on Saturday, sparking outrage among teachers and raising serious doubts about the credibility of the examination system. The State Council for Educational Research and Training's (SCERT) PAT exams, conducted for students from Classes 1 to 8 in all state-run schools, are meant to assess learning outcomes and understanding levels among children. However, teachers and education experts say that repeated leaks and lapses have made these exams meaningless, as the results no longer reflect students' actual learning levels. This time, the leak was detected on Friday morning, and SCERT found that the question papers for Class 8 Mathematics and English had been uploaded on a YouTube channel. SCERT immediately decided to file a First Information Report (FIR). Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson for the State Principals' Association, said, "There are serious lapses in the way this examination is being conducted. Even last year, a paper leak took place and an FIR was filed, but there's been no improvement." He explained that after last year's incident, the SCERT imposed several restrictions on schools. Teachers were not even allowed to make extra copies of the question papers if the number of copies received from the SCERT was less than the required number. Rahul Rekhawar, director of SCERT said that the process to register an FIR against four such YouTube channels was initiated on Friday night itself. "YouTube channels indulging in such malpractice have significantly reduced after the police have been filing FIRs against them and shutting them down with help from the police cyber cell," Rekhawar added. Rekhawar explained that for the printing, transportation, and delivery of the exam papers, SCERT had used data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) database, going back a month. "If schools could not update the UDISE data even till August end, then they were asked to arrange copies of the question papers on their own. The SCERT also sends 5% extra papers," said Rekhawar. Rekhawar pointed out that the PAT exams could not be conducted in a board-exam format considering the number of students involved (over 85 lakh) and three separate question papers for each class....