16 flying squads monitor PSEB Class XII exam centres in district

The Class XII Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) examinations are underway. The board and the District Education Department have constituted 16 teams of flying squads to conduct inspections of all examination centres in the district. Five of these teams conducted inspections at 11 centres on February 24.

The core subject exams for Class XII are yet to be conducted. The general English exam is scheduled for February 28. The district education office has not designated any centre as “sensitive” which means that cases of cheating reported during the board exams have been nil in the past three years.

The District Examination Control Room in-charge Sukhpal Singh said flying squads authorised by the PSEB, Mohali, were carrying out inspections of various schools as the exams proceeded. “Teams from the Mohali office will also visit Amritsar centres that have previous track record of mass copying. This year 278 teams of flying squads will be monitoring exams throughout the state,” he said.

District Education Officer Harbhagwant Singh, who joined a few months ago, said the control room would monitor all centres to ensure smooth conduct of exams. While this is what official records state, several private and affiliated schools in the district and adjoining district of Tarn Taran have gained notoriety for being a hub of mass copying during the PSEB board exams over the years.

Cheating in private, affiliated schools

In 2018, the then school education secretary Krishan Kumar had ordered conducting of the PSEB Class X and XII board exams under CCTV surveillance across 200 centres, including in Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Khemkaran Sahib. But that practice was suspended in the district for the current period. Post pandemic, cases of cheating in the PSEB Class X and XII boards dipped by 90 per cent. The last three- year record from the district shows zero cases of cheating being reported. But the flip side of the coin is that there are still several private and affiliated schools, especially in the Baba Bakala, Ajnala, Chogawan cluster in Amritsar, that facilitate cheating as they promise 100 per cent results to their students.

A senior PSEB official, shared that this practice was like an “open secret” in department circles. Ever since teacher’s Annual Confidential Report (ACR) have been connected with academic results of students, even teachers look the other way. “At several centres, that are known to get their students a promised 80 per cent and above results charging between Rs 50,000 to 80,000 for their “service”, invigilators help in “vocal copying” and inspection teams can do little to check this,” said the official.

While the board has, at several occasions, threatened a counter action on such schools through cancellation of affiliation, the practice continues under wraps.

Sources in the district administration say there is large-scale violation of rules in all schools. Open schools cannot admit students from outside district, but this is widely violated. In case of regular schools, they are reportedly large-scale dummy admissions. A teacher, working in a school in the Chogawan cluster said English and math were the two subjects in which most rural students struggle and indulge mass copying. “One of the reasons is shortage of teachers and desperation of most students to achieve minimum required marks to ensure a smooth visa process while they apply for migration,” the teacher said.