Exams Leaks - How to reinstate credence among the students towards our Education System

विद्या ददाति विनयं, विनयाद्याति पात्रताम्‌। 

पात्रत्वाद्धानमाप्नोति धानाद्धर्मं ततः सुखम्‌॥

No nation is perfect yet it's always on the path of perfection. The cradles that turns out to be the ladder for the upliftment of any country are usually embarked as learning knowledge basically the education system. None can bring much progressive development but it's the books that branches the development tree of a person to much longer and stronger extent. Allowing books' entry to our lives can bring millions of positive changes. Youth are the future of our country and making them understand the significance of knowledge, education, books is most crucial. And every motivations or beliefs are stitched to the outcomes, what if efforts are the best but result paths are blocked with the giant stumbles, that are intentionally located over there. Similar circumstance are cultivating in current span, Within a period of 1 month, three ellite exams has been observed with some illegal and immoral activities. Resulting into cancellation of the exams. How does it be affecting millions of aspirants who are trying very hard to achieve their desired goals. 

Enough of YouTube influencers with some low grade content are gaining popularity, fame and money which is overwhelming killing the aspirations of our youth who are genuinely invested in education ( STEM subjects, arts, commerce) that are basis for the development of any country. Paper leaks are forcing population to loose their confidence in the education system. This is affecting India to larger extent like Students are going out of India for higher studies, Brain drain, etc 

Astonishingly, Donald Trump has also understood and took a U- turn in his rhetoric speed for election campaign citing that USA will be issuing automatic Green Cards to Indian students because they are super bright and intelligent. Indian students study at the USA and on reaching India, they start new business, new start ups which is ultimately contributing to the Indian economy to much greater extent. USA, also acknowledge the wisdom of Indian students and youth but our nation is failing in recognising their own golden fruits. 

Pending results, Reservation, Limited vacancies and exam leaks, such loopholes will surely be helpful in deviating our bright students from books to some other means of earning and this loss is unbearable to the country. Bharat, since ancient times, renowned for its prudence, Intelligence, knowledge, legendary books, scientists, mathematics, artists etc. killing this prosperous legacy in such a way is disheartening. 

The big all India exam Leak : over 5 years, 1.4 crore job seekers in 15 states bore the brunt. 

An investigation by the newspaper's team of state correspondents covered 41 documented instances of leaks in recruitment exams. The revelations were starling. 

Possible causes for exam paper leaks :-

# Inefficient and ineffective maintenance of secrecy of exam papers till the exam is conducted.

# No back up plan is with the exam conducting agencies. Deficient of reserve paper, if there was reserve paper set, the leaked question could have been replaced by reserve paper when the leak happened.

# No stringent penalties and lack of strict punishments for these kind of crimes. In case, the culprits are caught, the case will be pending in court for several years.

# Over-emphasis on marks and board exams. Only factor to get entry in esteem institutions after competitive exams is entrance exam thus students with leaked paper solutions gets easier to get the admissions. 

This lead to corruption in the education system.

Can be done to restore the trust in education system :-

Several exams at different intervals of span comprising of short syllabus so that burden of the students can be minimised. Questions is the exam should be set in a way that requires in-depth knowledge of concepts, students' more analytic and critical thinking skills can be evaluated,this way lesser damage can be expected. Subjected or detailed questions can be the part of entrance exams as this reduced the chances of knowing the absolute answer but it will raise the logistics cost. 

Strict punishments for the culprits behind exam paper leaks will act as a deterrent and will reduce the chances of such leaks.

Building Cyber Crimes tribunals like I4C :- 

Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) was established by MHA, in New Delhi to provide a framework and eco-system for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) for dealing with Cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.

I4C is envisaged to act as the nodal point to curb Cybercrime in the country. It was I4C which first noticed the exam paper on the darknet, and reported it to the ministries of home affairs and education. “Based on information from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analysis Unit of I4C, prime facie it was found that there were question papers in the darknet. 

Technology can be used to make exams available at the last moment to the examination centres so that no time left for leaking the exams.There question papers can be printed according to the requirement. This will eliminate the leakage of papers at printing presses and storage places.

Even if the traditional method of distributing exam papers is followed, frequently changing the printing presses and storage spaces can decrease the vulnerability of leak.

New law drafted on paper leak with Rs 1 crore fine, 10-year jail term :- In a decisive move to curb paper leaks and cheating in public examinations, the government on Friday introduced the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. This law comes into force amid a massive controversy surrounding the NEET and UGC-NET exams, which have been marred by allegations of paper leaks and irregularities.