How a Board Examination in Karnataka Became ‘Mission Impossible’

From banning WhatsApp to using CCTV to deploying an army of bureaucrats, Karnataka PU exam seems ‘Mission Impossible’

My chemistry books are almost in tatters. I am fed up of studying chemistry for almost a month now. Its not a joke to revise the entire syllabus again and again after the exams have been re-scheduled not once, not twice, but thrice!

Akshaya

14-year-old Akshaya is not the only one to be furious and frustrated. On 12 April 2016, more than 1.74 lakh students in Karnataka will re-appear for the Chemistry paper a third time, after repeated question paper leaks in the Pre-University Board of Karnataka.

The state board officials are now running pillar to post to ‘plug the leak’. Additional staff from the education board have been roped in, and they are rushing against time to know the system, examination processes and execute their tasks with ‘0’ errors.

Here’s a look at how a simple board examination has become Mission Impossible in Karnataka.

• Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE) has seen 4 directors in 7 months. This adds to the chaos of devising a foolproof system.
  
• For a third time, six new sets of question papers prepared. Police guarding them from district-level treasuries to the exam halls.
  
• Different question papers may be distributed in different regions.
• District collectors will receive an SMS about which bundle to be dispatched to the exam centre.
• Along with PU officials, a team of IAS officers is monitoring the exams. Every movement and activity being tracked on CCTVs.
  
• A separate 3-member committee is overseeing the movement of question papers.
  
• Science faculty is completely out of the invigilation job. The task entrusted to non-science faculty.
  
• Meanwhile, PU Board is swarmed with suggestions like question papers be printed separately at every centre, upto 3 hours before the exam.
  
• A former Technological University VC suggested an online exam, with results and marking fed into a centralised computer system.

• DPUE Karnataka even suggested banning WhatsApp for 2 days, to make sure the re-exam goes smoothly.
  
• Hundreds of students received the leaked paper on WhatsApp and with CID investigating the WhatsApp trail, students dread every time the phone beeps!
  
• CID and Exam Board helpline is hassled with rumours of the leak, as several handwritten questions papers circulate on social media.
  
• Last but not least, demanding an increase in the pay, PU lecturers and principals have gone on strike. They have threatened to boycott the evaluation of II PU answer scripts.