Prasanta Kumar Dash
Bhubaneswar, January 15: Leak out of question papers before exams including HSC, CHSE and most of the entrance exams in the examination seasons, is rampant in Odisha and some of its neighboring states. Since years together, matriculation and higher secondary exams have been almost rescheduled, as some of the question papers go viral before the session begins.
Apart from the viral of question papers and leak out of questions due to other manmade reasons, cramming and unfair activities in the exam hall in answering the papers, have emerged as bothering problems for the concerned Boards and Councils to deal with the issues related to the pivotal exams, relevant for one’s career.
The Board of secondary Education Odisha(BSEO) that handles almost 85 pc of the 10th Class Exam in the state, has trialed out so many things to check question paper leak outs, cramming, and using unfair means in the exams. The Sets of question papers, OMR sheet, CCTV provisions in exam halls and 3-tier security systems in storage and despatch of question papers, are some of them. While, all these innovative systems to check copying, cramming and manipulating, in a bid to have a clean and fair matriculation examination, is yet farther.
The sufficiency of smart phones with the students and guardians, has even worsened the situation to making questions viral in moments and proving the whole preparedness of the exam authorities a flop show. In a fraction of second, a question paper goes viral on social media when some one clicks it on his mobile. On the contrary, most rarely in the past, an exam question paper was going public at a particular place for which the paper was rescheduled in that cluster. It was either due to the loose decorum of the strong-rooms or the Centre Superintendent and the Cluster authorities’ connivance, out of someone’s influence of favor. However, the viral video nuisance has been a common threat for the examinees and the examiners as well.
In a sincere bid to address the issues relating to leak out or question paper going freqently viral, the BSEO is all set to inset watermarks in the question papers, beginning from this session.
According to the BSEO authorities, the watermark mechanism will help reporting the place, time and exam centre in details, from which the question paper gets scanned or copied using digital/ smart devices.
BSEO President Srikanta Tarai underlined, the watermarks will be incorporated into the question papers to ensure better security and prevent them from going viral.The invisible watermarks would be added to every page of the Matric question papers, making it easier to trace the source of copying, that leads to get the questions viral before or amid the session.
“The self-display watermark will include information such as the examination center and hall details. In case someone captures an image of the question paper using a Smartphone or scanner, the watermark will reveal the place and the miscreant’s identifications in details, Tarai added.
Educationist Manjushree Das said, incorporating watermark mechanism is a part of reformations in the exam system. The Education department is adopting newer methods for clean and fair examinations ahead but in vain. Viral question papers are not only putting the examiners in trouble but it’s a serious threat to the genius students who remain serious of making bright careers. Frequent rescheduling of sessions dishearten them in many ways where they ultimately scores lesser than they expect for. However, the watermark measure that is going to be implemented from the HSC Exam 2025,may not be a one-stop solution to the viral problems. Once a question paper is dispersed in the public domain means re-examination is a must ,for the larger interest of the pupils.
The concerned state or central boards even the Councils should try out the precautionary measures earlier from the beginning of a session. From this apart, the teachers and other stakeholders should be adequately trained to counsel the students regarding the upcoming exams and their corrective reformations. Most significantly, the blueprint of the question papers should be based on the IQs of the average students so that no student would be less able to answer 60 pc of the questions in ease. It will fill self-confidence in the examinees and will do away with the dependency on cramming or indulging in unfair means while appearing an exam, Das added.
