THE CBSE PAPER TRAIL

The question papers leaks have prompted officials to announce a shift to a new system. Here is how CBSE currently gets a question paper into its students’ hands:

1 CREATING BLUEPRINT

Around July, the CBSE’s Academic Unit creates a subject-wise plan for that academic session’s question paper: the topics to be focussed upon and the number of easy, moderate and difficult questions

2 BUILDING QUESTION BANK

The plan is sent to subject papersetters, who draw up a bank of questions accordingly. They create roughly 60 questions for each category – easy, moderate and tough

Security measure: No paper-setter knows which questions will be selected

3 DRAWING UP SETS

Questions are sent to moderators, who vet them for consistency with respect to the blueprint and syllabus. By August, they create three sets – A, B and C – among which questions may or may not be different – and three subsets of each (A1, A2, A3...) in which the order of questions are rejigged

Security measure: All sets are hand-written, making any leak identifiable

4 PRINTING

The board sends an unpredictable combination of sets to be printed by ‘security printers’. The printers are spread across country and are given an exact quota based on the centres they will cater to. They print no more or less than the number of examinees

Security measure: People involved in this step have no way of guessing which set will make it

5 TRANSPORTATION

A week before the exam, the printed sets are put in sealed boxes and sent to designated banks close to clusters of exam centres

Security measure: Papers are in sealed boxes and kept in bank strongholds

6 PICKUP

On the morning of the exam, CBSE invigilators dispatched to each centre receive by SMS the details of which set to pick up from the bank. An hour before the exam, the invigilator and several guards bring the set to the centre

Security measure: Guards accompany the invigilator

7 DISTRIBUTION

Roughly 15 minutes before the examination, the seals are broken and papers are taken out for distribution in examination halls