Officials in the ministry of human resource development have said that from the next session, no physical copies of question papers will be sent to exam centres.
New Delhi: The Class X and XII exams conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) are set for complete digitisation from the next academic session to prevent question paper leaks.
The decision follows the recent leak of the Class X maths and Class XII economics question papers ahead of the exams, which affected lakhs as a retest was conducted for Class XII students.
Officials in the ministry of human resource development have said that from the next session no physical copies of question papers will be sent to exam centres. The centres that fail to keep up with the process will not be given the responsibility of conducting exams, they added.
The standard protocol and detailed guidelines in this regard will be issued by the CBSE by June this year.
“We will send a link to question papers with an encrypted code that the centre superintendent will have to decrypt only when they are asked to, and this will be just an hour before the examination is about to begin,” said a senior ministry official.
“The centres will then make copies of the question papers and distribute them,” the official added.
The CBSE had recently appointed a committee to look into ways of preventing paper leaks, and this was one of its recommendations. The committee, however, continues its search for more effective ways to avoid leaks.
So far, the hard copies of question papers were sent from the CBSE headquarters to exam centres picked on the basis of availability of facilities such as space, fans, proper lighting, and furniture. Under the new system, internet and electricity connections will be added factors for eligibility.
However, exceptions will be made in case the board falls short of centres.
“The centres in remote places that do not have electricity will have to get a generator to use the computer and print papers,” the official said.
Those that do not have an internet connection would be given the question papers in a CD, the official added.