Guwahati, Feb. 7: The Board of Secondary Education, Assam, (Seba) will impose a ban on students and invigilators carrying cellphones or any other electronic device inside the matric examination halls to prevent cheating. Over four lakh students will sit for the Class X final examinations across Assam from February 18.
“Examinees will be barred from carrying cellphones to the examination venues. If any teacher or invigilator carries one, he or she has to switch off the device and deposit it with the head of the institution before the start of the exam. If any examinee is found using cellphones during the test, he or she will be liable to face immediate expulsion,” Seba chairman Dhandev Mahanta told The Telegraph today.
Mahanta said the ban on cellphones and other electronic gadgets was part of Seba’s comprehensive plan to conduct the matric examinations in a free and fair manner.
He said the board had found that cellphones had been misused for cheating in the recent years.
“By putting cellphones on silent mode, examinees used to receive text messages from outside, with the answers. As examinees now do not have to write long answers, the text messages have proved to be a very suitable tool for them to cheat,” he said.
Mahanta said invigilators would not be allowed to carry their cellphones in exam halls following complaints that some of them had been encouraging or abetting cheating.
Seba had received complaints that a few unscrupulous invigilators, during the exams, contacted teachers over their cellphones and leaked the questions immediately after the papers were distributed among the examinees. These invigilators allegedly passed on answers to the students.
Mahanta said other invigilators allegedly used cellphones during the test for personal conversation, creating disturbance in the exam halls. The ban will also help create a peaceful atmosphere in the exam halls, he added.
Other electronic gadgets such as calculators will also not be allowed inside the exam halls.
Officers-in-charge or head of the institutions selected as exam centres will be responsible for enforcing the ban.
Mahanta said Seba would also conduct public meetings near different examination centres on February 16 or 17 seeking the people’s cooperation to prevent cheating.
Parents, guardians and prominent personalities will attend the meetings.
“There will a zero-tolerance policy towards cheating and indiscipline during the matric exams. Seba will disqualify all examination centres (where cheating is detected) from holding the test in 2017 without even giving an opportunity to the centres’ heads to explain,” Mahanta said.
He added that the board would start sending the admit cards to different examination centres from tomorrow.
Seba has verified track records of headmasters of several schools before entrusting them with the responsibility of managing matric examination centres in their respective schools this year.
The exercise was carried out following complaints that some headmasters or principals allowed their school’s matric candidates to resort to unfair practices.
The board normally appoints headmasters or principals as the centres-in-charge of their own schools during the matric examination every year.
