Hyderabad: Despite putting in place precautions and security layers around this year’s SSC exams, including police deployment, flying squads and closure of photocopy shops nearby, two separate cases exposed how the most rudimentary tactics were all it took to breach the system.
One involved a blank paper being smuggled to a water supplier for a student to provide tough questions, the other a photo clicked through a school window. The idea was to supply answers via chits.
In Nakrekal town, Nalgonda district, the Telugu language paper was underway on March 21 when someone photographed a student’s question paper from the window at TGSWRS girls’ school. The image, sent out via WhatsApp, triggered an investigation and 12 persons were arrested. The suspects had allegedly planned to circulate answers before the exam ended.
In Jukkal, Kamareddy district, a student slipped out a blank paper to the water supplier, Mubeen, who passed it on to someone stationed just outside ZPHS Jukkal. The promised answers never came back as the flying squad detected the leak leading to six arrests.
Authorities insisted that these incidents were contained, and not indicative of widespread exam sabotage.
“This was not a question paper leak. These were malpractice incidents that took place after the examination began,” said A. Krishna Rao, director of government examinations.
“Our monitoring teams, including the police, were active on the ground. These cases have been swiftly identified, action has been taken, and we remain committed to maintaining integrity.”
But the ease with which these breaches occurred has prompted questions about on-ground vigilance. “Generally such malpractices should not happen. The support staff should also be under surveillance,” said M. Sadula, an SSC school principal.
“From windows they may throw papers out. We have to take care of that aspect but it is difficult to keep vigilance all around the building. Those windows must be kept closed. Such measures must be taken by the chief superintendent. We usually focus on the entry but possibly there is a need to take care of the other sides of the building too,” Sadula added
Though digital tools have been embedded into nearly every aspect of the exam infrastructure like QR-coded hall tickets to track routes on Google Maps to CCTV-enabled monitoring rooms, the two reported breaches leaned on methods so basic that they seemed to have caught the authorities off-guard.
As a senior official observed, the entire bandobast was designed to thwart high-tech cheating. What it failed to account for was a well-placed window or a discreet exchange involving pen and paper.
Nonetheless, Friday’s science paper was calmer with an overall turnout of 4,96,576 regular candidates and 6,026 private candidates. No fresh malpractice cases were booked on that day, though five invigilators were relieved from duty due to negligence.
