SHARP prints: The Jharkhand Academic Council office in Ranchi

Ranchi, June 2: Mark sheet racketeers, prepare to flunk the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) test. The council is all set to distribute watermarked score sheets and certificates.

This year, 2,45,802 of the 3,54,626 examinees cleared the matriculation examination conducted by JAC. Officials said the council would award the new duplication-resistant certificates from this year itself.

It is well known that racketeers who run the mark sheet business are tech-savvy. They use computer graphics to simulate original certificates minutely. But the council is smarter.

According to JAC secretary Yamuna Giri, the USP of the new A4 certificates, besides the watermarks, is in authorised logo and signatures embedded on paper. Moreover, these cannot be viewed with the naked eye, or be scanned and copied.

“The watermark on a certificate is unique to an institution. The certificates will bear an in-built logo of the council. They will be light sensitive. Only name, marks, registration number, et al, can be seen with the naked eye. But official details such as logo and signatures can only be visible only if you hold the certificate against light. Fake certificates won’t have these attributes,” said Giri.

According to the officials, though the earlier mark sheets were less expensive to produce, the council invested in forgery-proof documents to curb corruption in academia.

“We want a transparent system of board evaluation to correctly assess students. This time, we tightened invigilation at exam centres. Quality has replaced quantity in this year’s pass percentage. Forged mark sheets are an insult to those who slogged for their grades,” said Giri.

Prodded on the status of 103 and 113 withheld students of Netarhat Residential High School and Netarhat Public School, respectively, where severe discrepancies were found in answer sheets, the secretary said the examining committee was still investigating the case. “We will expedite the probe as we don’t want the career of any innocent student to suffer,” he added.