Pune: With much fanfare, every year board examination of class 10th and 12th of Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education are conducted. The entire society sets its eyes on these exams which creates a do-or-die situation for the students.
Over the years, however, the examination has been marred with copy cases putting a question mark on its credibility. The state board in consultation with various stakeholders deliberated on various methods to reduce the copy cases. But to no avail.
Then, came the Covid-19pandemic which disrupted the entire examination system. After three years of disruption this year, the exam took place offline. The state board ensured all measures for the smooth conduct of the examination vis-vis reduction in the copy cases.
Tracking system was used this year
Taking the help of technology, the State board installed a tracking system for the runner who carries the paper sets from one place to another. Right from the district collector, superintendent of police, and divisional commissioner to school principals were involved in making the examination copy free.
Bearing the fruits of these measures, there was certainly a reduction in the copy cases, the procedure involved too many people making it complicated.
Experts suggest methods to reduce malpractices in exam
Former State board chairman and educationist Vasant Kalpande said, “to make the class 10th and 12th exams copy free, first and foremost we require to change the paper pattern. For years we have had a set paper pattern which says that question one will be of this difficulty level and will carry these many marks”.
Secondly, we need to make the questions more application based so that the students will have to think for the answer rather than remember it which they have gained through rote learning. Thirdly, there should be at least two three thousand question sets randomly distributed among the students. Currently, we have only four sets and after every fourth student, the questions are the same. This gives them the opportunity for copying”, he informed.
Retired teacher Pratap Nalwade said, “we need to sensitise the parents and teachers as they directly or indirectly create pressure on the student to excel in the examination. Kalpande and Nalwade both opined that the examination should be ‘on demand’. This means whenever a student is ready for the board examination in the stipulated time, s/he must be given the paper.
Kalpande mentioned that the New Education Policy (NEP) has many guidelines regarding the conduct of the examination, but the implementation remains crucial.
Meanwhile, secretary of State board Anuradha Oak said, “compared to the year 2020 we had a considerable reduction in the number of copy cases. There were hardly one or two cases of copying in the class 10th examination. This is due to strict action taken after a few incidents of copying came forth during the class 12th examination.
This year we had 260 copy cases in the class 12th examination while 113 in class 10th”, she said adding that in the year 2020, we will have 996 copy cases in class 12th and 586 for class 10th.
Division-wise copy cases in Class 10 exam
Pune: 21
Nagpur: 25
Aurangabad: 29
Mumbai: 02
Kolhapur: 00
Amravati: 03
Nashik: 33
Latur: 00
Kokan: 00
Total: 113
Division-wise copy cases in Class 12 exam
Pune: 72
Nagpur: 47
Aurangabad: 73
Mumbai: 10
Kolhapur: 03
Amravati: 10
Nashik: 13
Latur: 32
Kokan: 00
Total: 260
