BENGALURU: The question paper leak during the second-year Pre-university(PU) final exams has exposed the various levels of rot in the system — starting from the question papers being set to them being transported to the exam centres.
The system that the department is following was set a decade ago. Practically everybody, from the department staff to the faculty members and even the students are in the know of the procedure followed during setting of the question paper, its printing and dispatch. For years, the department has not been following stringent measures to prevent leaks and as a result, question paper leaks are being reported during most of the exams. The department has been in existence since 1977.
However, 2016’s paper leaks as it happened twice in 10 days, exposed the loopholes of the system. The ongoing CID inquiry has revealed that there was no proper monitoring system at the treasuries where the question paper bundles were stored four-five days before the exams. CID sleuths said there were no CCTV facilities at the treasuries too.
Even members of the staff, involved in the examination process and some facing allegations, were able to manage to stay on with the department in the sections they were in.
When B A Harish Gowda was director of the department, a major exam malpractice was reported, in which some department staffers were said to be involved. As per documents, a report was submitted against 18 staff members and it was recommended that they not be posted at the head office. However, as soon as Harish Gowda was transferred, all of them were reinstated at the head office and a few still serve in important posts.
Though the technology has improved over the years, the department still follows the old system of getting the paper set with the help of experts, sending them off to print and transporting them to treasuries and lastly dispatching them to the centres. In this system, the leak can happen at any stage from the setting of papers to their dispatch.
The lack of action against the accused in previous cases also led to such incidents recurring. Paper leaks have been happening every other year since 1977. In some cases, the accused are arrested, but they are released on bail in a short time. Shivakumara Swamy, said to be the kingpin of the racket, was also arrested twice by the police and released on bail.
Loophole-ridden
In 1977 papers of all the subjects were leaked. The department had cancelled all the exams and conducted re-examinations. Bhagya, a state government employee and a 1977-batch PUC student, said, “When we were studying PU courses in 1977, question papers of all the subjects were leaked and we had to write the exam for all subjects all ovre again.”
However, till 2005, no such big cases came out. In 2005, the city police arrested touts, who were trying to sell the question papers to students at resorts on the outskirts of Bengaluru. In 2007 also the department caught a group of people, who had mislead students by spreading rumours of a paper leak.
In 2008, a lecturer, Shivakumar, was arrested for trying to mislead students by taking them to outskirts of the city, promising them that he would give them question papers.
This year, the paper was first leaked a day before the Chemistry exam to held on March 21. As the department was unaware of the leak, it conducted the exams and later had to announce the cancellation of exams. The exam was scheduled for March 31, and the authorities got a message from CID sleuths around 3.30am about another leak. The exams were finally pushed to April 12.
Living in Denial
Authorities do not admit that such incidents are frequent. Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Rathnakar said, “Former education ministers and former chief ministers contacted me and asked me not to make an issue. But I decided to eliminate the problem from the root so meritorious students do not suffer, at least in the future.”
However, experts feel that such instances are impossible without involvement of officials from the department.
Dr M S Thimmappa, former vice-chancellor and eminent educationist, said, “This can only be possible with the help of department officials along with private colleges.”
The Accused
Manjunath, a teacher with a city private school, who is also an LIC agent got the hand-written question paper on March 20. The deal actually started three days before the exams, CID officials said.
Manjunath met Obalaraju, OSD to the Medical Education Minister, on the same day and shared the paper. Obalaraju noted it down by hand.
Obalaraju then passed the paper on to Rudrappa, an employee with the PWD department, and his brother-in-law. Rudrappa too copied it by hand.
These two accused took WhatsApp images and circulated the paper to a few other students,
taking money as they had paid `10 lakh to Manjunath to buy the paper.
Modus-operandi
Pvt Colleges to be blamed
Education experts say the mushrooming of private colleges in the state is among one major reason for malpractices during examinations. Educationist Dr V P Niranjanaradhya said, “The increasing number of private colleges is one of the major reasons behind the question paper leak. Even the ongoing CID probe revealed the involvement of private colleges.” He added, “For private colleges, running a college is more of a commercial activity. So, to increase the value of the college in the market, it is a must for them to get good results, for which they follow illegal means.”
“As the number of colleges increased, competition between them too increased, but it is sad that the competition is not healthy,” he said.
CID teams have raided over 11 private colleges across the state to probe their involvement in the paper leak.