Stringent check for board exam staff to ensure no cheating

MUMBAI: Ahead of Class 10 and 12 board examinations, the Mumbai division of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has asked all schools that serve as examination centres to ensure a thorough background verification of its staffers, to avoid malpractices like question paper leaks.

In a series of meetings, board officials have been emphasising on ensuring that only people with no record of malpractice are given exam-related tasks. For this, they have asked centres and custodians to follow the board’s existing norms about staff appointment. “The board has a lot of norms about appointing personnel for exam-related duties. In the last few years, however, a few centres were seen flouting the norms where there were cases of malpractice. To avoid this, we have warned all the centres and custodians about appointing people with a clean record,” said Sharad Khandagale, secretary, Mumbai divisional board.

HT had earlier reported about the board’s decision to inspect some of the problem centres in the division where malpractices have been recorded in the past. In 2018, 54 cases of cheating, copying and involvement in paper leaks were registered with the state board, of which, 36 students were debarred from appearing for their Class 10 examinations until March 2019.

The Amboli police had later arrested the vice-principal of a Mumbra school in connection with a paper leak racket. “We will conduct a meeting of our flying squads appointed by the board today, after which they will start visiting these centres,” he added.

Meanwhile, with a few suicide cases being reported due to examrelated stress, the division will release a list of helpline numbers this week. “The idea is to make the helpline numbers available early so that students who are currently stressed about exams can benefit from it.”