Examination paper leaks in India are not uncommon and not new.  This year when nearly 6.8 lac students of Karnataka state board appeared for the Pre-University board exams, they had a lurking fear in their minds of happenings of last year (2016) exams, when Karnataka’s Department of Pre University Education (DPUE) made news for all the wrong reasons with sequential Chemistry Exam paper leaks on two instances.

This Year however things passed off smoothly, with no paper leak reported, except on 13th march when the accountancy exam was going on, a page of the question paper circulated on whatsapp leading to fears if there was another leaked question paper. But a confident Education minister and his team swung into action and within hours the DPUE officials had arrested Sidhana Goud, a part-time faculty member of PU College in Raichur. It was discovered that entered the exam centre posing as a flying-squad member and had clicked a picture of the front page of the accountancy paper.

The incident interestingly came as a blessing in disguise for the ministry as it highlighted the security mechanisms that had been put in place  and were actually proving to be effective. The department which had kept most of the security features secret under the Karanataka Secure Examination System ( KSES ) had to share some of them. The speed with which the guilty were arrested surprised many as to how in a remote area of Raichur an attempt to leak was prevented from becoming a big embarrassment for the education department.  “The question paper had 18 pages, of which only one page was photographed. We had introduced a Unique Bar Code as a security mechanism on every examination paper and that helped us trace the culprits within hours to the exact centre where the mischief was played out” Primary and secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait told Policy Pulse.

While the PU College lost its recognition, students pursuing I PU there will be relocated to other colleges. The Education minister and the department had taken upon itself as a challenge to ensure there were no leaks and had put in place series of Standard Operating Procedures ( SOP’s). As an initial process the centres and treasuries where the question papers were stored saw installation of CCTV’s  with live monitoring. Apart from that several security features like Bar code printing were generated to be able to trace the centre numbers to where the question papers were being despatched. This enhanced the transparency as it put a sense of fear into minds of many.  It maybe recalled that Karnataka Board Examinations in 2016 had seen Chemistry paper being leaked on two occasions and the 1.76 lac chemistry students being forced to re-write the examination three times.  It was the role of junior level staff at Treasury offices where the question papers were stored that came to light. This year during the period of exams , other government departments like transport which also use the treasuries for depositing cash  were denied access and asked to deposit cash in the banks directly. “The Objective of putting the Secure system in place was to ensure that very few people could have access to the question papers , and even those who had were monitored. My officers were determined to prevent any leakage. It was a challenge and the team accomplished it with positive feedback from students and parents”said Tanveer Sait , Education Minister , Karnataka

Last year the paper leaks issue had snowballed into a huge controversy and had cost the then education minister Kimmane Ratnakar his job. Even during the exams , some traditional procedures for students were changed. Students were not permitted to enter the exam centre if they arrived beyond 15 minutes of exam having started . Similarly they were not allowed to go before  one hour of the scheduled time of the examination end-time. Several centres under the secured examination system in private schools were made to install CCTV cameras at all exam centres and in first year 60 per cent of them were equipped with CCTVs. The installation of CCTV’s brough down even the cases of malpractice like copying etc to less than half. While in last few years over 80 cases were registered for copying and other malpractices , this year saw only 34 such cases being reported. Coming at a time when the other states are still coping with challenges of mass copying and effective examination procedures , the Karntaka secure Examination System guidelines are being replicated for the SSLC (standard10 ) examinations.

As a step further and to boost transparency on the evaluation of the answer sheets, model answers to the examination conducted are being posted on the website for students to get a fair idea of where they stand. Students will be able to raise objections if any to the marks that they get by writing on the website.Even in case of re-evaluation requests from any students the scanned copies of the original answers will be mailed to the students seeking re-evaluation.  While the procedures are put in place , everybody including the Examination department is awaiting the results to be declared as many in the education department feel more than being a test for the students it was a test for the officials of the education department who have till now succeeded in keeping the Board exams clear of any controversy and if they pass the procedures adopted may become part of a Blue Book on conducting exams in future.