All of us must salute the whistleblower little girl from Sambalpur district, who played a key role in exposing the well oiled question paper leak racket. The anonymous girl forced the State Government to undertake certain reforms that were long overdue in the examination system.
The little girl of a private self-financing college, in fact, exposed the entire game being enacted by certain dishonest employees of the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) and teachers. She was one among the few students who got hold of a portion of the Physics question before the examination.
The girl, disgusted with the serious crime of question paper leak, reportedly took the help of the media to get the leaked portion of the Physics paper published in a newspaper — and helped lakhs of other students in the process.
Though the State Government did not consider it as question paper leak technically, certain students had got parts of the question papers ahead of the examination. It was a leak of sorts, if not a full-fledged leak. There were allegations that besides Physics, the questions of Chemistry, Mathematics and English subjects had also been leaked. The CHSE has, meanwhile, cancelled the Physics examination and rescheduled the Chemistry paper.
The Chemistry paper was rescheduled after the CHSE flying squad found a packet of question papers tampered with. The tampering of the Chemistry question paper was detected at Anchalika Mahavidyalaya, Mahalinga in the district of Kalahandi. After finding tampering in the question paper packet, the CHSE has also cancelled Anchalika Mahavidyalaya, Mahalinga as an exam centre.
Immediately, the Centre Superintendent was apprehended and subsequently arrested. After the inevitable hue and cry that followed, the State Government ordered a Crime Branch inquiry into the incident.
Accordingly BK Sharma led Crime Branch sleuths swung into action and at least exposed the people involved in the Physics paper leak. Going by natural suspicion, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) team focused on privately-run self-financing colleges in Sambalpur. During investigation, the investigators found the modus operandi of the question paper leak.
It is revealing to know when leaked question papers are available. It is always between 8 pm and 10 pm just a day before the examination and that too in a handwritten Xeroxed form, not the original Q paper and with some of the words missing. Sometimes, the question papers are photocopied by mobile phone and sent using bluetooth.
The private residential colleges, which take huge fees from rich parents, procure portion of questions, obviously at a hefty price. A student is normally charged Rs 10 to 20, 000 for the questions.
While opposition political parties are demanding the head of the Minister for Higher Education, sleuths have found out that a portion of the amount goes to the CHSE officials, mostly below the rank of the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary, as per the admission of a culprit.
In case of the Physics paper, it was found that an official of Sandilya College of Science and Commerce (SCoSC) contacted a senior official of the CHSE who, in return, asked him to contact a junior official. Sandilya College had 67 students.
“After rounding off the number of students to 70, the deal was struck for a cool Rs 7 lakh. But there was only one hitch. The person never turned up with the questions! Panicky college authorities rang up the CHSE official concerned and were this time given another contact, who asked for Rs 7 lakh for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (PCM) papers. The college authorities, however, chose to obtain only a portion of the Physics question paper after coughing up Rs 3 lakh,” said one of the members of the CB investigating team.
That privately run self-financing colleges are instrumental in leakage of question paper is by now well established, said a top official of CID. Crime Branch sleuths have arrested the chairman of SCoSC Kartik Barik and its marketing executive Subash Barik on criminal charges of leaking question papers to students.
Debendra Behera, Deputy Secretary of CHSE, has also been arrested. However, he is reported to be revealing little to the sleuths as he is a hard nut to crack, admitted a CB cop.
Odisha has a total of 2035 colleges of Plus II and Plus III having combined student strength of 3, 69, 284. Of them, the number of private residential colleges is 239.
Though private colleges are mushrooming in the State, there are no special provisions in the Odisha Education Act to regulate them. Most importantly, private residential colleges are charging higher rates as decided by them and State Government has not legislated any Act to control their fee structure.
With the prevailing situation, the Odisha Government has been advised by leading educationists to go for large scale reforms.
Firstly, experts advise that there should be at least five sets of question, which they say will ensure that there is no widespread leakage. Secondly, questions should be brought from Plus II Council to the Question Hubs in steel lockers.
Question Hubs should be set in at least 20 kilometer distance covering several examination centers, they suggest adding that at least two officers of CHSE and two police constables should accompany the question papers.
Question papers should be distributed on the morning of the examination day and not days before the examinations, which provides ample time and opportunity to Centre Superintendents.
Meanwhile, the State Government has decided to involve the District Collectors and SPs in the examination process in order to make it foolproof. The Council has also identified sensitive districts prone to leakage of question papers such as Kalahandi, Nuapada, Bolangir, Sonepur, Malkangiri, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Sundergarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Jharsuguda. This apart, 24-hour squads are to be deployed for centers where tagged colleges like Plus-II science private college students are appearing Plus-II examination.
In another measure, irrespective of the number of candidates, one Deputy Superintendent would be appointed in every centre. The Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent would be in charge of question papers and opening of the same would be jointly dealt with by them. The observers deployed by the District Collectors and CHSE would be present at the examination centers by 9 O’ Clock for the first sitting and 1 O’ Clock for the second sitting for all examinations.
As part of the reforms, the State Government has decided that permission and affiliation of colleges would be permanently cancelled if they are found to be involved in mala fide and nefarious activities during the conduct of examinations.
The State Government has also decided to amend the provisions of Odisha Conduct of Examination Act, 1988 to make penal provision for mishandling of question papers and other examination materials with provision of imprisonment for 10 years.