They can hide chits, whole books, Amazing!

Chandigarh, March 19: quot;YOU confiscate one parchi and the minute your back is turned, they produce another. It's amazing how they hid...

Chandigarh, March 19: quot;YOU confiscate one parchi and the minute your back is turned, they produce another. It8217;s amazing how they hide chits and even whole books,quot; remarks an invigilator at S.D. Senior Secondary School, Sector 32. quot;Only the threat of taking away the would-be cheater8217;s answer sheet deters them. So far, we have registered two Unfair Means Cases UMCs.quot;

The invigilator complains that there is little time to check the candidates before the exam starts: quot;They all reach the centre at the same time, so we check only those who look suspicious.quot;

At a local college, an examination superintendent pointed out: quot;Cheating methods change faster than school or college syllabi.quot; With that, he displayed what appeared to be a continuation sheet; closer inspection revealed that the four-page sheet was blank on the outside but had notes written on the two inside pages. quot;A student had slipped away with the answer sheet on a previous day and returned for the next exams with notes to help him through the exam.quot;

Harmandeep, a local Plus Two medical student who is taking his annual exams this year, confides: quot;I use T-shirts. I bought six cheap white T-shirts and inscribed necessary diagrams and points on the front, taking care to write upside-down. I wear the T-shirt under my shirt, easily available for a quick peep,quot; he smiles.

The most common cheating gadget these days is the digital diary 8212; so useful for storing difficult formulas. Calculators are permitted in the examination hall and diaries look almost identical.

quot;Cooperationquot; is an old standby. Namita, a Plus Two student, confided: quot;We can whisper, so long as there aren8217;t too many voices at a time. The invigilators don8217;t like noise.quot;

CBSE joint secretary Y.P. Katyal hesitates to comment on the cheating scene in UT centres: quot;We will know only once the exams finish. Last year, 12 cheating cases were from Class X and six from Plus Two. Most of these were reported from Haryana.quot;

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The CBSE has appointed an anti-cheating inspector for each of its 46 centres in the UT. The punishments meted out by the CBSE vary from debarring the candidate from appearing for exams from one to five years on the basis of material the candidate used for cheating. quot;So far no cheating case has been reported from any UT exam centre but should there be any, the punishment will be cancellation of result,quot; he says.

When Newsline visited S.A.S. Nagar8217;s Phase III-B1 Government Senior Secondary School, the floors of school toilets were littered with chits and books. quot;We have registered two Unfair Means Cases,quot; said the examination superintendent. The invigilator at Sohana8217;s B.S.H. Arya Senior Secondary School claims: quot;Every day we extract a sackful of chits and books from students before the paper. Despite that, the flying squad got six UMC cases here.quot;

A member of one of the flying squads constituted by the Punjab School Education Board disclosed: quot;There was this kid in a kurta-pyjama8230; we knew he was cheating but couldn8217;t figure out how until we saw he had written everything o the kurta8217;s bottom inner corner. We took him out of the hall. It was a clear case of unfair means until, on his request, we allowed him to use the toilet. He went in and washed away the proof it was written in sketch-pen!quot;

Already the Punjab School Education Board has reacted to reports of mass copying by cancelling two maths exams and one English paper at different centres in Punjab.