Nagpur: Now copying cases in board exams won’t mean trouble only for students as the state education department has made its intent clear by starting the process of revoking an Aurangabad-based school’s NOC.
Earlier this week, school education minister Varsha Gaikwad informed the legislature that after malpractice was detected at that school, punitive action against the institution was started.
This has put all schools on high alert as earlier the focus used to be only the students involved in malpractice. An official working with the Nagpur divisional board told TOI that even CCTV footages will be scanned. “There are schools who have CCTV installed in classrooms or at vantage points. So if complaints of malpractices emerge then all evidences will be checked. For the last three years we have been telling them to preserve the CCTV footage for a few weeks after the exams,” the official said.
He confirmed that in Nagpur too the Aurangabad pattern will be followed. “The education department has made it very clear that the spate of malpractices being reported from across the state are unacceptable. We had allotted home centres for the benefit of students during these tough pandemic times. But if some students and schools are going to take advantage of this largese and cheat, then they will have to pay the price,” the official said.
The education department has multiple units but is primarily run by two important wings that have presence at the divisional level. One is the divisional board office, while the other is deputy director (education) office. The former is responsible for affiliating schools for SSC and HSC, along with conduct of board exams and releasing results. The DDE’s office takes care of the administrative part in which school’s NOC, staff recruitment (in case of government and aided schools) and implementation of RTE rules is looked into. So now even the DDE office comes into the picture because NOC is granted by them.
The same board official said, “While everyone accused of malpractice gets a chance to clarify their stance, usually our flying squads do not take action unless there is ample proof.”
Ever since the board exams started, there have been reports of malpractices. The first one was from Mumbai in which photos of some parts of the question paper were found on a student’s phone. A police case has been filed and investigation is under way. The other reports came from Ahmednagar and then Aurangabad. So far, from Nagpur division no such mass level copying case has been reported.