BENGALURU: Second-year pre-university students appearing for their final exams from March 1, will be watched closely by invigilators with the help of closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance, which has been introduced this year. The move, which will cover all the 996 examination centres, including government and private colleges, will entail CCTV cameras and biometric attendance systems being installed in all centres for candidates, examiners and other staff who enter the examination hall.
Following the massive question paper leak, which dented the image of the state education department during the final exams in March 2016, the department made it mandatory to install CCTV cameras at all exam centres during last year’s exams. But only 30 per cent of government colleges were able to follow the directive. This year, government colleges have managed to complete installing CCTV cameras in all their centres.
Explaining this, C Shika, director of PUE department said, “Last year, the principals of the colleges did not have powers to utilise cumulative funds available with the colleges, but this time we have given powers to principals to use up to `1 lakh to install CCTVs. In case of expenditure of more than Rs 5 lakh, the deputy directors concerned from the department will have the powers to authorise installation.” This delegation of powers to principals and deputy directors was key to ensuring all centres were covered by the CCTV network.
In addition to these measures, all the 250 district and taluk treasuries where question papers will be deposited will have a system that will alert the Deputy Commissioner of the district if any unknown people enter the treasury. The directors will also have access to the CCTVs through their mobile phones and will monitor all activities at the treasuries.
KSEEB to follow suit
The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) is following in the PU department’s footsteps to prevent examination malpractices. The board has directed the deputy directors of public instruction in all the districts to mandatorily install CCTVs at examination centres. During 2017 exams, of the 3,300 centres, only 1,390 centres had CCTVs. This year, the rest will be equipped with CCTVs, said a senior official of KSEEB.
Strict vigil
Over 6.89 lakh candidates appearing for PU II exams
Exams will held from
March 1 to March 17