Tamil Nadu board exams question papers under CCTV lens

CHENNAI: Following the question paper leak in revision tests, the school education department has accorded top priority to the safety of board exams question papers. The strong rooms where question papers are stored have been brought under 24X7 CCTV surveillance, provided round the clock armed police protection and banned the mobile phones in the vicinity of strong rooms.

"The custodian officers and security personnel were asked to maintain a log book where the details of persons entering the strong rooms have to be maintained," an official from the school education department said.

The Class XII exams are scheduled to begin from May 5. On the exam day, the route officers will take the question papers from these strong rooms and deliver them to the schools with police protection.

Though some of these instructions were given in the previous years as well, the school education department asked the chief educational officers and district educational officers to follow these rules to the book.

In violation of the guidelines, a chief educational officer has distributed the first revision test question papers directly to the schools. Teachers from two private schools in the district have leaked the question papers. A question paper for the second revision test was also released on social media.

"Only government and government-aided school teachers will be used for invigilation and evaluation of answer sheets. Wherever there is shortage of teachers, the use of private school teachers will be allowed," an official said.

S Gnanasekaran, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary School Headmasters Association, said there is very little scope for malpractice in state board examinations.

"The directorate of government examinations has been successfully conducting the board exams without any leaks of question papers. It has well-established procedures. We cannot compare a board exam with a revision test which was held without any protection," he said.

P Perumalsamy, state president of the Tamil Nadu Post Graduate Teachers Association, said conducting the exams in the peak summer would be more challenging than the malpractices.
Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!