Mumbai: The state govt has directed all public universities to refrain from appointing contractual staff in sensitive examination departments as one of the prime measures to prevent paper leaks and other malpractices. The higher and technical education department has also asked universities to fix responsibilities for examination-related work on designated staff, to increase accountability and action in the event of irregularities. The govt has further decided to adopt the recommendations of the Nandan Nilekani-led central task force on examination reforms as soon as its report is released and implement them across all state-level competitive examinations, mainly the computer-based ones.Among other measures, the use of blockchain technology for the security of academically important certificates of students in the state to prevent forgery was also recommended. Directions have been given to formulate a policy for the same.The directives were issued in a meeting of higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil with the vice-chancellors of public universities last week. All universities should issue a notification fixing responsibilities regarding examinations on university officers or permanent employees, directed the minister in the meeting. “The directive to not appoint contractual staff in examination departments also applies to affiliated colleges,” said an official from the department, citing the Mumbai University final-year BCom paper leak early this year.In the MU case, a temporary staffer, who was assigned examination duties, was found guilty of serious misconduct and was removed from service. The paper had leaked from the university’s Centre for Distance and Online Education (CDOE). The CCTV footage showed the staff member clicking photographs of the question paper on his phone while the printing process was on.The official added that while the centre-in-charge was a permanent employee, the duties were assigned to a temporary staff member in the case. “Not only will such appointments be disallowed, the permanent employees will also be held responsible if there is a slip-up,” he added.The vice-chancellors have been asked to prepare a uniform statement of purpose (SOP) regarding examinations and also hold a one-day workshop for all examination controllers across universities.Speaking about the Nilekani report, the official added that the state will apply the report of the task force in totality. The task force for exam reforms has been contemplating creating a massive question bank and generating a question paper at the last minute using artificial intelligence (AI) as one of the measures to prevent a paper leak. Such a measure, if finalised, can be adopted in the state too, and is likely to be foolproof for computer-based tests in competitive examinations, said the official.
