By Atul Rawat
Adults and those in the position of power have the onerous responsibility to ensure safety and security of future of all children and students. In the present era, the innocence of the childhood has already been affected at the altar of the changed socio economic conditions of society. Thie children face tremendous pressure growing up on several counts. These pressures have been well documented by several educationists and psychologists over the years. It is a pity therefore that another case of paper leak of NEET-UG has surfaced. While the culprits will eventually be caught and punished according to the law of the land, the larger question will remain. Why do we have recurring cases of paper leaks? Why can we not have a system which is able to ensure that the students are able to appear in an examination without fearing that undue advantage will be handed over to some with connections and means at their disposal?
Such leaks have affected not only the school boards but also recruitment tests, engineering and medical entrance examinations, and government job examinations over the years.
The problem has only grown considering that we have thousands of coaching centres spread across the country which operate on the principle of ‘success rate’ of their wards. They are driven by the economics of the system and hence there is no doubt that they are under pressure to perform and improve their performance year on year.
Some of the popular examinations conducted in India are – the board examinations, UG examinations such as NEET (medical entrance) and JEE (engineering entrance), UPSC prelims and SSC recruitment examinations.
Over the years, with the dwindling job market, the number of young seeking jobs has only increased. This is further exacerbated by the limited seats not only in the job market but also in the educational institutes. The system is very competitive, but only a few succeed, and often a single examination may determine the career and social mobility of an individual. There is no doubt the population dividend that India enjoys has to be properly managed to ensure that the youth continue to contribute to the growth story of the country as they move from school to college and then into the job market.
There are reports that there are middlemen that sell question papers for a large sum of money and they circulate the paper through social media platforms.
The systemic vulnerabilities such as at the printing press and the transportation chains are exploited by the corrupt.
Whenever such incidents happen it is not only the students but their parents, too, who suffer from the fallout. They spend several years and large amounts of money and time in preparation for the examination and feet totally dejected by the leak. It is often a herculean effort to lift oneself up to once again start the preparation.
A leaked or cancelled examination has a cascading effect such as delayed admissions and pushing candidates out of the age limit criteria.
There is need for the authorities to ensure that a robust system is created by ensuring encrypted digital paper transmission, AI-based surveillance, biometric verification, etc.
It is a huge challenge that we as a nation and society face. We cannot afford to let down the youth of the nation because it is on their shoulders that the future of the country rests.
