Pre exam indignity

Pre exam indignity

Humiliating measures to prevent cheating in exams must be deliberated upon by the Govt.

Cutting clothes in the name of controlling cheating in examinations. How low can the system and society go to move forward in life? The bizarre incident happened a few days ago at an entrance exam centre for the Rajasthan Administrative Services 2021. A male security guard was seen cutting the sleeves of a top worn by a female candidate. The anger and humiliation of the candidate were evident in the clip that went viral. The National Commission for Women took suo motu cognisance of the matter. The Government considers the examination to be highly competitive and, therefore, claims the possibilities of cheating are high. It even orders a shutdown of the internet during the examination. It is common for security guards at the entrance of the centres to scissor long sleeves of women’s tops. In this case, it was a male guard who used the scissors, and that is why the strong objection. The objection should have been to the cutting of clothes in general. A man doing the honours is an added insult. It is the Government’s responsibility to conduct examinations in a free and fair manner. Governments have been conducting examinations of various education boards for decades now and they have vast experience of coming up with foolproof methods for conducting professional examinations. That some States do it successfully tells on the level of inefficiency of others; Rajasthan in this case. To be fair to the Governments, strict steps are necessitated because of the misconduct of both the invigilators and the students or examinees. In most parts of the country, the system is a farce because of a nexus between the two, wherein for exchange of money, examinees are provided facilities to write answers even without studying. As methods of cheating improved with the availability of technology, so did the counteractions by the authorities. In Uttar Pradesh, for example, one Government introduced strict measures against cheating and as a result, lakhs of students, unsure of passing, preferred to opt-out of the board examinations.

However, never was the right to dignity of life of examinees put at risk in the name of anti-cheating measures. It is happening now and the Governments must be held responsible for giving human decency a wide berth. Rajasthan’s is not the precedent. In 2017, the CBSE, which was conducting the NEET examination, came out with a dress code for examinees that ruled out long-sleeved tops, dark-coloured trousers, closed or high-heeled shoes, big brooches, metal buttons and earrings and even metal on bras with hooks. There were cases of women forced to remove their bras before being allowed to enter the examination centre. As a woman politician said at that time, it is debatable how many female candidates would have been able to write the exam properly after being subjected to such humiliation.