Staffers exchanged, restricted access: Increased security at the single HSC exam-centre declared as ‘sensitive’ in Mumbai district

A visit to the college revealed rigorous security measures to ensure proper conduct of the exams. The staff conducting the exams had been exchanged, with personnel coming from different  schools. However, none of them had the Maharashtra state board-issued identity cards for HSC exam staff, as announced by the state board earlier. Instead, the state board had provided a list of approved external staff, and they entered the campus using their original school-issued identity cards.

The campus had tight security protocols, including closed gates and restricted access to only those with valid identity cards. Additional security personnel were deployed on each floor of the junior college building. However, the expected use of face-recognition technology and drone surveillance, which had been publicized by the Maharashtra state board, was absent at this centre.

Suman Singh, the administrator of Patuck Junior College, spoke about the strict arrangements. “We have cooperated with the board and made all necessary arrangements for external staff to conduct exams while our own staff have been deployed at other centres. Our goal is to conduct a smooth examination without any malpractice,” she said.

Stating that it was a shocker for the college to be marked as a sensitive exam centre, Singh pointed out that the college had been a respected educational institution and an HSC-SSC exam centre for several years. “There was one isolated instance of copying in 2018, and we don’t understand why we were identified as a sensitive exam centre based on that,” she added.

Rajendra Ahire, chairperson of the Mumbai division of the Maharashtra State Board, clarified that sensitive centres are designated based on past incidents of copying which happened at an exam centre and were detected by flying squads. “If a copy case is spotted by the centre, it is not considered sensitive as it was vigilant enough to spot and report the case. But here our flying-squad spotted the copy-case,” he said.

Regarding the absence of drone surveillance and face-recognition technology, Ahire said, “These measures are not applied universally as there are practical issues involved such as drone permissions etc. Thus, these measures are implemented based on the level of sensitivity expected at each centre which was not the case here.”