Govt looks at new tech to curb paper leak

BHOPAL: Jolted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) paper leak, the ministry of human resource development department (MHRD) is considering use of technology and minimise human intervention to curb any possibility of a paper leak from next year.


Retired secretary (higher education)

MHRD Vinay Sheel Oberoi

has been appointed the chairperson of the 7-member committee, constituted by the MHRD to work out a plan for next academic session.

Speaking to TOI, MHRD secretary for school education and literacy Anil

Swarup

confirmed the move saying “from next year, we can assure everyone the system will use technology to ensure no paper leaks.”

Stating there was no role of the CBSE as cleared by police post-investigation, he said it is now clear the CBSE was not involved directly or indirectly in paper leaks.

“It happened at the bank level. How do you hold an outside agency, which is using bank as a repository responsible for leaks? However having said that it is our considered view to ensure even this must not happen. Hence, we have set up a group headed by ex-secretary

GoI Vinay Sheel Oberoi

. The team is looking at it,” he said.

On suggestions provided by the MHRD in this regard, he said suggestion made by MHRD is to use technology to curb the issue. “For example, one way of looking at it can be we can put all question papers on a CD (Compact Disk) and encrypt it. We can send the encrypted CD to schools well before the exam, but the decrypted code could be sent an hour before the exam.”

Swarup asserted there would be protocol on how the CD would be structured, delivered to exam centres, how they would be encrypted or decrypted. “This is one way of looking at the issue, but having said that it now depends on the team how they work out things. Maybe they come up with even better ideas. So let’s wait for it and be hopeful,” he told TOI. He said the objective for constituting a committee is to revisit all aspects related to security checks built into the system for ensuring question papers reach examinees without any tampering.

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