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National Importance
Mahesh

03/07/24 11:00 AM IST

Computer-based test, close supervision

In News
  • Recently,Centre constituted a high-level committee to look at ways for reforming the process in the conduct of examinations by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
Pros and cons of computer-based test
  • The key difference between NEET and JEE is that the latter is now an entirely computer-based exam.
  • Both the stages are held at designated computer centres, run by a unit of Tata Consultancy Services.
  • It helps that a far lesser number of students appear for JEE than NEET.
  • In recent years, about ten lakh students have taken JEE (Mains), about two lakh of whom qualified to take JEE (Advanced)
  • . In contrast, about 23-24 lakh students have taken NEET in recent years.
  • The TCS test centres can together accommodate about two lakh students at a time.
  • Therefore, JEE (Advanced) can be conducted in one session.
  • JEE (Mains), however, is held over multiple sessions — each session has a different question paper with comparable difficulty level.
  • There are other companies that have similar infrastructure in different cities to conduct computer-based tests, but they have smaller capacities.
  • Except 2022, JEE has been conducted at the TCS centres since the online examinations started in 2017.
  • An online test removes several vulnerabilities from the examination process like the possibility of question paper leak during transport and distribution to the centres.
  • It also reduces the involvement of outside agencies such as a printing press or a transport company.
  • The ongoing probe into the irregularities in NEET has highlighted these vulnerabilities.
Challenges
  • But online tests introduce new risks like that of technology-based irregularities, and digital impersonation.
  • For instance, in 2021, one entire centre in Haryana’s Sonepat was duplicated, and remote access of the computers at the actual centre was given ‘solvers’.
  • Subsequently, the TCS test centres were banned, and other centres were used for the 2022 JEE.
  • The centres began to be used again from 2023 only after TCS enhanced security and plugged loopholes at the test centres.
  • In this case, the problem was localised and could be contained.
  • A CBI investigation is still pending in the matter.
Supervisions by IITs
  • In 1997, a bigger embarrassment happened for the IITs when question papers of all the three subjects — physics, chemistry, and mathematics — were leaked a few hours before the entrance test.
  • The examination, which used to be pen and paper type back then, had to be cancelled and rescheduled.
  • Since then, JEE has undergone several changes, including the introduction of a two-stage process a few years later for other reasons.
  • For JEE (Mains) now, the IITs are involved mainly in the question-setting phase.
  • The other processes are taken care of by the NTA.
  • But for JEE (Advanced), the IITs control the entire examination process, which begins almost a year in advance with the nomination of a JEE chairman and vice-chairman at each of the institutes.
  • The seven older IITs have a more active role to play with each one of them taking turns to become the main organiser.
  • The IITs take great care to ensure that question papers are prepared in complete secrecy.
  • Two groups work in two different cities to prepare two different sets of questions for each of the three subjects.
  • Each group has one faculty member of each of the seven older IITs.
  • These groups are made afresh every year, and none of the other faculty members at the IITs are aware who all have been nominated to prepare the question papers for the year.
  • The two sets of question papers are handed over to the JEE chairman, who alone decides which of the two sets would be used for the examination.
  • The test centres are given access to the question papers a couple of hours before the scheduled start of the test.
  • The IITs depute two to three of its faculty members at each of the test centres to supervise the process.
  • Earlier, when JEE used to be a pen and paper examination, it used to be IIT staff themselves who would carry the question papers to each of the test centres
  • The active involvement of the IITs in the entrance examination has been one of the main reasons why the sanctity of has been maintained, according to the people who have been previously involved with JEE.
  • IITs and its faculty members have a lot of stakes in this system. In a way, it is not just about the reputation of the institute, but also our livelihoods.
  • If admissions are not done properly, then our own careers are over.
  • So, there is a very strong sense of ownership.
  • Another faculty member, now retired from IIT, said the control over the examination was probably the key distinguishing factor between the JEE and the NEET.
Source- Indian Express

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