Abbottabad deploys online monitoring for SSC exams

The new system has been introduced during the ongoing exams for ninth and tenth grades across the Hazara division


Muhammad Sadaqat March 17, 2017
The new system has been introduced during the ongoing exams for ninth and tenth grades across the Hazara division. PHOTO: FILE

ABBOTTABAD: Despite facing perennial problems such as power outages and slow internet speed, the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE) is Abbottabad has decided to introduce to online monitoring of examination halls to clamp down on cheating.

The new system had been introduced during the ongoing exams for ninth and tenth grades across the Hazara division, which commenced on March 15.

A total of 1.18m students, both male and female candidates – including 101,360 regular candidates, are appearing for the exams. The exams are expected to continue till April 3.

The BISE has set up 153 examination centres for girls and 291 centres for boys.

According to Abbottabad BISE Chairman Professor Sajjad Khan, around 100 centres located within the urban limits of Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra districts are being monitored through closed-circuit cameras linked to a centralised control room set up at his office. At the remaining centres, recording of exam proceedings had been made mandatory.

Prof Sajjad added that staff of the board had been monitoring these centres through six large-sized displays in his office. The monitoring team, he said, keeps vigilant eyes on students and examination staff. In the event they discover any activity taking place against examination rules, they issue a warning directly. They can even ask for cancelling a student’s paper as punishment.

“We will ensure online monitoring in all examination centres in the upcoming intermediate exams in the division,” Prof Sajjad said, claiming that their experiment had helped curb cheating during exams.

To a question, he said that they would continue remote monitoring of examination halls till the last paper, though, the facility would not be available during practical exams.

When asked about frequent complaints of favours extended to examination halls by some private educational institutions, the BISE chief said that private educational institutions were being monitored more than public sectors.

About the problems faced by the newly introduced system, Prof Sajjad said that although the cameras installed in the examination halls can function f or 18 hours without power, the frequent power outages and slow speed of internet were the main obstacles they were facing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2017.

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