BPUT students of Odisha take their exam papers home!

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 2:

In falgrant disregard of examination norms, some private engineering colleges under Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), Odisha allow their students to take their examination papers home, write it at leisure and submit it back in a day or two.

It doesn’t stop here. Some students never appear for their examination at all and get their papers ghost written. In fact, they never attend classes either and are busy working somewhere else. Many private engineering colleges have this tacit understanding with students who join B Tech after diploma via lateral entry examination.

As per the standard practice, the answer papers are usually sent to the evaluation centres the day the examination takes splace. However, BPUT has a wacky policy whereby the answer papers of all subjects are sent to the BPUT headquarters at Rourkela at one go after thewhole  examination is over. This extra timeframe facilitates all sorts of malpractices and manipulation.

The technical university of Odisha has a dedicated department called ‘Directorate of Examination’ headed by a director of professor rank to control and supervise the examination. There is also a provision for special squads to visit the colleges to ensure free and fair examination and seal the answer papers after examination.

However, as we reported in a story earlier (http://odishasuntimes.com/105613/odisha-govt-rejig-bput-flying-squads-curb-malpratice-exams/ ), large scale ‘squad fixing’ takes place in the university and influences the examination process to facilitate cheating and wrongdoing.

Also, private colleges not only have first hand information about the squad, at times, they also get to choose members of the squad. These preferred squads are illegally paid and influenced by private colleges to ensure they don’t invigilate while the students continue to write examination papers in illegitimate ways.

Speaking to OST, Examination Director of BPUT Mayadhar Satapathy said, “As per our existing rules, we have asked college authorities to submit the answer papers immediately after the examination is over. It is the job of college authorities to ensure the safety of answer papers till they are sent to us and the duty of the Squad Supervisor to seal the answer papers. Action will be taken if we find evidence against any supervisor not sealing the papers.”

What comes as a sigh of relief is the statement of P K Das, Additional Secretary of Technical Education Department of Odisha, who acknowledged bungling in the examonation system and gave an assurance  that the existing provision of BPUT to submit all the answer papers at a time will be abolished.

Das said, “Next year onwards, we will rejig the squad to curb malpractices and ensure that the answer papers reach the evaluation centre within 2-3 hours after the examination is over for any subject. The papers will further be scanned and sent to the evaluators.”

“We will also put in place a process to make out how to evaluate an answer sheet and publish it on our website so that there can be transparency and accuracy in the evaluation process. Also, the students can correctly predict their performance based on their answers.” Das added.