6. Newage copycats get smarter with hi-tech gadgets
Dwaipayan Ghosh & Manash Pratim Gohain, TNN Jan 12, 2012, 02.23AM IST
NEW DELHI: While the AIIMS entrance scandal has turned the spotlight on
cheating in high-profile institutions, academicians and police sources say the use of
unfair means has grown rampant generally in recent years. And the trend is global. A
survey done by an American institute in 50,000 colleges and 18,000 high schools
across the world found that 70% students cheat. In 1993, cheating was not so
prevalent - 56% - while in 1963 only 26% students had used unfair means in exams.
Experts say moral training from childhood and a strict vigil in the examination hall
are the ideal solution to the problem, but institutes with reputations to uphold are
not taking any chances. Some, like Italy's Eriso Tosi Technical Institute, now use
military-grade mobile jammers to stop students from cheating. In India, invigilators
have not kept up with technology but unscrupulous students seem to be making the
most of it. From mobile phones to Bluetooth devices designed especially for
cheating, they are using them all.
At the school level, chits or handwritten slips are still the chief means of
copying as mobile phones and other gadgets are not allowed in the exam venue.
"Most school students cheat using handwritten slips hidden in socks, collars or
straps of wristwatches.
7. But asking around for answers is not so common now as multiple sets of
question papers have been used in exams since the '90s," says MC Sharma,
controller of exams, Central Board of Secondary Education. He mentions two
instances of examinees declaring they have chicken pox, only to get inside the
mosquito net and start texting.
In higher institutions, cheating is now done with gadgets. In 2005, the authorities
were shocked when 21 students scored identical marks in physics in the Delhi
College of Engineering entrance exam. A CBI enquiry found a former DCE student
had helped the students for Rs 4 lakh each. He gave them SIM cards that were
activated just before the exam.
Impersonation, micro-Xerox and MMS are some of the new technologies in use.
Students have also been caught using Bluetooth devices. In Jamia Millia Islamia,
several cases of senior students or outsiders impersonating aspirants in entrance
tests have come to light.
"Use of technology is more about organized use of unfair means. At a basic level,
handwritten slips have given way to micro-Xerox with which students photocopy
text books in miniature form. The more tech savvy candidates use MMS and
receive answers on the phone. Although it is generally illegal, students smuggle
mobiles in at times," said professor PB Sharma, V-C of Delhi Technological
University.
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16. If the same student is found
copying/cheating in an examination in any
other following semester/s, he/she will be
deemed to have withdrawn from the
programme.