Palakkad: The public exams for higher secondary courses of the Kerala Government were held in the Gulf countries this year without the mandatory personnel to oversee them. Several rules were thus violated, reveal documents obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The major discrepancy was the non-appointment of deputy chief superintendent and invigilators by the state Education Department.
The exam was conducted violating the rules in eight unaided schools in the Gulf even though they follow the same syllabus and exam manual as 2,094 higher secondary schools in Kerala. In fact, the Education Department lacks information regarding even the identity of the invigilators in the Gulf.
Ironically, in Kerala centres, the Education Department takes strict against invigilators. They are summoned for hearing in Thiruvananthapuram even when a squad detects copying by students during an exam and for minor discrepancies such as students not writing their register number clearly.
This year, eight senior teachers from government schools in Kerala were deputed to the Gulf as chief superintendents to conduct the higher secondary exam. In normal cases, deputy chief superintendents also are appointed to report exam malpractices directly to the Education Department.
Last year, chief superintendents and invigilators were selected from other unaided schools in the Gulf, while deputy chief superintendents were deputed from Kerala.
The revised exam manual says that practical exams in unaided higher secondary schools should not be conducted even by teachers from aided schools. But, in the Gulf countries, practical exams are conducted by unaided school teachers.
Meanwhile, it is also alleged that chief superintendents and deputy chief superintendents are appointed in the Gulf on a political basis. Exams which are held violating rules could lead to malpractices such as leakage of question papers to centres in Kerala.