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| Copying over the years | | | Prof. M.R Puri | 9/15/2010 11:58:41 PM |
| The recent case of Imper sonation at the Batra Medical College examination centre at Jammu University and the involvement of wards of two political heavyweights in the scandal has brought into limelight the evil of use of unfair means by students in the examination. This evil has been rampant in varying degree since the inception of the system of public examination. But in 1960's the phenomenon of 'mass copying' erupted on the scene. This is how it began.
The teacher invigilators at the exam centres started helping the wards of some V.I.P's in the exam halls. The other candidates particularly those with muscle power noticed this. They started helping themselves by copying openly and threatening the invigilators if they intervened. It became well-nigh impossible to control this menace of mass copying in the exam halls. Conduct of exams thus became unmanageable. It required courage to agree to undertake a supervisory duty in an exam centre.
Many soft options were considered to contain this menace. Open book exams was one such option; questions banks was another. However, in a meeting of the council of Jammu and Kashmir University, Sadiq Sahab as Education Minister went to the extent of suggesting, "Why hold the public examination at all? Let the university only issue a certificate to the student that he satisfactory attended a particular course and leave it to his future employer to test him." Fortunately, however, when Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah took over as the Chief Minister of the State again after Indira-Sheikh Accord in 1975, his charismatic personality brought about a miracle and mass copying in our state disappeared overnight. He allowed the police to enter the exam hall, if necessary, to control copying. Simul taneously, an exercise was undertaken by the university to review the 'Prevention of use of unfair Means' Statues and make them more humane. Under the existing draconian Regulations, if a student was caught copying, he would be debarred from appearing in the exam for a period of 3 to 5 years. This virtually terminated his career. Under the revised Regulations, punishments were calibrated depending on the magnitude and the gravity of the offence. The punishments varied from (i) canceling the portion copied. Or (ii) canceling the question copied or (iii) canceling the particular paper to debarring the candidate from appearing in the exam for one year.
The punishments were now acceptable to the students and worked as deterrents. Though the system of conduct of exams improved as a whole, individual cases of copying continue. Therefore, the case of the ward of an Advisor to C.M found copying in the Law exam should surprise nobody. Of course, the news of mass copying in the B.Ed Exam centres is disturbing. In the end I would like to mention a personal case. I was working as a Superintendent at an exam centre in the New Hall of G.G.M Science College, Jammu in 1950 I caught a student copying from books twice on two different days.
But he was let off and even passed the exam because of his high connection. These things unfortunately happened even them. |
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