A total of 213 cheating cases were reported during the Class 10 and 12 Board examinations for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in 2018, with the maximum number of such instances (84) reported from Guwahati, according to The Times of India.
Delhi stood second with 36 such instances of cheating reported during the Board exams last year, followed by Panchkula (24), Allahabad (16) and Patna (15), the report said.
To curb instances of cheating this year, the board is reportedly planning to adopt advanced security measures, and is also offering counselling to the students and parents on the importance of clearing exams ethically.
"Appearing for the Board exams is one of the most anxious phases for Indian students. Sometimes the pressure gets to them, compelling them to cheat to get good results. Parents and teachers need to guide students to not fall prey to wrongful means," the report quoted Sanyam Bhardwaj, controller of exams at CBSE, as saying.
"We are all aware that there are organised cheating rings operating in the country that take advantage of the vulnerability of parents and students. Neither parents nor students should fall prey to these," the official told TOI.
The guidelines issued this year include a detailed section for teachers on how to guide parents and students to avoid unethical practices during the board exams.
“Today the attention span of the students has reduced significantly owing to the various distractions especially due to social media. As a result, most of them get jittery as the exams approach. We need to find a solution to control this and teach them better time management,” Bhardwaj reportedly said.
In addition, the board has also adopted new Information Technology initiatives that will help students locate their exam centers on Google maps.
The Board will also be using the Theory Evaluation Trend Analysis (TETRA) software – written by its own team last year – to study the trend of marks being obtained by the students across the regions, IANS reported.
The software displays the live trend of average marks scored across the centres and can be used for moderation of marks in case there's an unfair degree of ambiguity or difficulty in the question paper.
(With inputs from the Times of India and IANS)
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