Officers for SSLC exams vigil

BANGALORE: To minimise malpractice, the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) decided to restart the arrangement of having Gazetted Officers as observers to supervise the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations to in April. Speaking to Express, D Venkateshaiah, Director Exams — KSEEB, said the arrangement was based on the Election Commission model which deputes officers to different taluks other than their own to ensure objective supervision. “It is like an officer from Belgaum would come to Bangalore for supervision. The idea here is to ensure bias-free supervision,” he said. He added the arrangement will be reintroduced as a test case to see how malpractice can be controlled without any bias.Like the Block Educational Officers (BEOs), Chief Superintendent Officers (CSOs), Deputy Directors of Public Instruction (DDPIs) and other officials, the observerswill have power to take action against errant students on-the-spot. “We will have one observer for each educational block. That makes it 204 Gazetted Officers in all the blocks in the state,” he said. Venkateshaiah stressed  there would be no CCTV or biometric systems to supervise the SSLC exams.“One cannot expect CCTVs to be installed in all the exam centres. The SSLC exam is being taken by close to 8 lakh students. With only ` 345 taken each student, the department cannot even think about such measures. We will stick to conventional measures to check on malpractice,” he said.