Students appear for HSLC exam. File picture

Guwahati, Aug. 5: Dispur has asked the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, (Seba) to verify track records of headmasters of several schools before entrusting them with the responsibility of managing matric examination centres in their respective schools in 2013.

Sources told The Telegraph that the directive came after the education department received several complaints that some headmasters allowed their school’s matric candidates to resort to unfair practices to score better marks.

The board normally appoints headmasters as the centres-in-charge of their own schools during the matric examination every year.

“Such practices cannot be allowed anymore. Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, during recent meetings with Seba officials, asked the latter not only to verify their track record but also to examine whether it would be possible to relieve the headmasters from the task of managing the centres during matric exams. An idea has been mooted to replace headmasters by teachers (not from the same school) as the centres-in-charge,” a source said.

The source added that since Seba was an autonomous organisation, the government had left it to the board to take the final decision on the role of headmasters during matric.

The eight-member committee headed by K.K. Handique State Open University vice-chancellor Srinath Baruah had said in its report that cheating in examinations was rampant in many parts of the state and this must be prevented to ensure quality of education.

The committee had strongly suggested enactment of a legislation that had provisions to book and punish those involved in unfair practices.

An education department official said the government had taken the Baruah committee report seriously and asked Seba to install closed-circuit televisions or video cameras at 100 examinations centres on an experimental basis next year to prevent cheating.

“Dibrugarh University used videography to conduct the Combined Entrance Test 2012 for medical and engineering admissions to prevent cheating. The exercise proved successful and thus, the education department wants to experiment the same in the matric exams in which cheating is rampant,” he said.

The official said the government had also decided to constitute a four-member advisory committee to guide or advise Seba in smooth conduct of matric from next year. The committee will include prominent academicians, administrators as well members from the public.