A Class X private candidate’s last day appearance at the Chhota Udepur centre has spilled the beans on his “unfair means” in the examination. A police complaint has been lodged against him as he was reportedly caught appearing as a dummy candidate. However, it was revealed during the hearing that he was actually the original candidate who had to appear for the last paper as the dummy candidate — one of his cousins who wrote six papers for him — fell sick and couldn’t appear for last paper. [related-post] The whole episode came to light when the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Examination Board (GSHSEB) summoned the original candidate for hearing. This year, a total of 40 dummy cases were reported. Out of these, Class X recorded the highest number among all while Class XII Science stream reported none. As per rules, every dummy candidate case is registered with the police. Despite a deterrent of a police case, as many as 21 dummy cases from Class X have come up for hearing at the GSHSEB headquarters in Gandhinagar. Among these, there is no woman candidate who was caught using a dummy candidate. While, in Class XII General stream, 19 dummy cases were reported, out of which three were women candidates. Out of a total of three women candidates, one was appearing from Aravalli for her Class XII General stream examinations who was caught during her fourth paper. When called for hearing, she admitted that all the three examinations were taken by the dummy candidate. When asked for the reasons for using this unfair means, she said that she forced by her in-laws to clear Class XII which would make her eligible for several government jobs. “The private candidates generally adopt this unfair means during examinations as against the regular students where there are hardly any chances. This is only possible because the private candidates while filling the registration form use their own details with the photograph of the dummy candidate. Most of the times, they get caught when they themselves try to appear for the examinations,” said the deputy director (examinations) V R Gosai. In another case, during the hearing session, a Class XII candidate revealed that the dummy candidate used by him was only Class X passed. “He might be only Class X but still he knows better than me,” he told the examination committee. Another similar accused told the committee during the hearing that he has spent around Rs 10,000 on hiring a lawyer for his police case. The loopholes Though board authorities did not rule out the possibility of a nexus between the examination centre and the candidate for using dummy, it claimed that the authorities are mulling over the measures to put a check on dummy cases during the examinations. During a recent meeting, the GSHSEB recommended a few measures that can be used. For instance, in addition to the registration card or the entry card checked at the examination centre, a government approved identity card should also be verified. Also, there is a proposal of using candidates’ pictures on the mark sheets issued by the GSHSEB.
