With the recent CBSE paper leaks, people are wondering if there are alternative ways of conducting exams in a more secured manner. Today, technology has the answer to almost all our problems.
“How much did you score in the exams?” has always been a major question aimed at children, thereby putting constant pressure on them to score well. Due to this, sometimes, people tend to take shortcuts and cheat. This was probably what led to the recent CBSE question paper leaks too.
Consequently, the question that arises is why we still relying on old-fashioned ways of conducting exams. While some argue that it is best to shift to practical assessments and scrap written examinations, some feel that it is, in some cases, important to conduct written examinations.
Available alternatives
While considering the latter opinion, we tried to find out alternative ways of conducting safe written examinations with the help of technology. There are ways through which it is possible to biometrically generate question papers with proper algorithm-run programmes and make them available to invigilators and students, moments before the exam starts.
“Our system makes the question papers (QP) available through multiple biometric-based validation by the principal, the exam hall invigilator, and finally by the students themselves. On positive validation, the question papers that are in our KenCLOUD are made available to the students just in time, thus making the whole QP delivery process 100% fool proof,” Kunal Mondal, Director of Technology Interface at Mindlogicx, explains.
Talking about end-to-end marking process, Gopal Devanahalli, CEO of MeritTrac Services, says “Digitising the entire process of examinations — from question paper development to results delivery — should be something that examination boards should look at.”
Talking about implementing these technological way-outs is not going to solve any issue. The problem arises in implementation. While majority of the exami boards are government-operated, a doubt can be raised as to whether the proposed technologies can be implemented only with the help of the government, or whether private/individual companies can try and implement them on their own with the help of schools and colleges.
“In the current system, the onus to implement such a technology-based question paper delivery is most often at the discretion of the exam body, and the government may only suggest technologies that are currently available in the market. Thus, governments can mandate the implementation of such technologies to ensure authenticity of exams, and prevent the implications of re-exams explains Devanahalli.
There are many people who prefer the current way of conducting exams, and hesitate to use technology as they feel it is complicated. However, considering the benefits that other sectors (like banking, manufacturing, and so on) are gaining due to technology, a shift from old-school ways might be a solution to an easy and secured way of conducting exams. “Our device base eco-system needs minimal human intervention, and to be more specific, all that one needs to do is to give his or her fingerprint authentication and the rest is taken care of by our system. We have made it as simple as that,” says Mondal.
