HRD turns to e-mode for exams

The latest leak which comes after several such incidents nationwide, beginning with the CAT leak last year, was exposed when the Delhi Police Crime Branch arrested two persons from East Delhi’s Ashok Nagar with the pre-medical exam paper. The examination, which was scheduled to be held on Sunday, was cancelled and it is likely to be rescheduled ‘‘within a week or 10 days.’’

Tripathi told The Indian Express that he was convening a meeting of state education secretaries. He was aware that there had been at least 10 instances of state-level examination papers being leaked in the recent past. He said he would advise the state education departments to also move over to the ‘‘electronic method’’ as far as possible.

The HRD Ministry has been sitting on these suggestions since the CAT entrance examination paper leak last year. Even then some academics had advised the HRD ministry that it would be advisable to move over to the electronic mode.

Of course, the CAT leak had prompted the ministry to take on the IIMs and accuse them of gross neglect. The response was very fast with the minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, convening press conferences at his residence and summoning concerned bureaucrats over for urgent meetings.

The ministry’s response to the CBSE pre-medical entrance was rather tardy in comparison. Joshi left for Rajkot early this morning to canvass support for his party’s Lok Sabha nominees. It was left to the higher education secretary and his joint secretary in secondary education, S.P.Gaur, to be in touch with the CBSE and discuss with them steps that needed to be taken immediately.

Tripathi told Express that he had convened a meeting on the CBSE leak tomorrow morning. He said that he would ask the CBSE to switch over to the electronic mode as early as possible—in fact, for the re-examination if feasible.

Tripathi said: ‘‘If we continue to rely on the old practice of getting these questions printed and keeping it in the custody of people whose activities we cannot supervise round the clock, then there is no point continuing with that traditional system. The electronic method leaves us with very few loopholes.’’

Tripathi said that he would check with the CBSE tomorrow if they would be able to introduce electronic examinations right away. If not, he felt, it should be done next year.

Other HRD officials said that now even Joshi is in favour of the electronic mode. They claimed that the All India Engineering Entrance Examination also conducted by the CBSE had been made foolproof. They, however, would not disclose how.

The CBSE officials, who announced that they would release a fresh date for the exam by the evening, tried to buy more time by saying that they needed to co-ordinate with centres across the country. ‘‘We wanted to announce the date today but we need some more time to co-ordinate with all our centres across the country. We also need to see that it does not clash with other entrance examinations,’’ said Pavnesh Kumar, controller of examinations CBSE.

The CBSE’s PMT examination was to be taken by 2.4 lakh students across 31 cities and 424 centres in the country, for over 1,700 seats. Angry candidates shouted slogans outside the Board’s office in East Delhi and all over the country, students returned disappointed from examination centres.

While the Board has not yet asked for an inquiry into the leak, it said it will wait for more information from the police before taking a decision. The CBSE’s All India Pre Medical/Pre Dental examination accounts for 15 per cent of the total seats in all Central and State government medical colleges in the country.

This year the CBSE decided to split the exam into two—a preliminary one and a main exam— after the reported leak last year.

‘‘It is a very important exam as it accounts for such a significant percentage of seats in some of the most reputed and sought-after medical colleges across the country,’’ said Pavnesh Kumar, controller of examinations CBSE.

While the Board conducts the examination and awards the ranks, the Director General Health Service (DGHS) allots the students the medical colleges according to the rank obtained.