The Central Board of Secondary Education is planning to switch to a computerized test for centrally conducted key entrance exams. This would include the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and other entrance exams. The move has the support of HRD minister MM Pallam Raju. The board is looking for a firm to gauge its level of preparedness for the switch.
Depending on the audit on the government’s level of preparedness the computer tests could be introduced as early as in 2014. Although organizing computer based tests for about 15, 00,000 test takers is not going to be easy, the JEE main exam is already being offered in a computerized form to a few students at select centers. Through JEE students are selected for the IITs, National Institutes Technology (NITs) and other central institutes.
To see whether the government is ready to give up the pencil-paper format, the audit will check the readiness of 300 centers across 28 Indian cities and in Singapore, Kathmandu and Colombo. Infrastructure including CCTV surveillance, power backup, 20% additional desktops, standby servers, air-conditioning and access control measures will be checked by auditors in these centers.
The audit will also review security arrangements at centers and measures to prevent question paper leaks.
The computerized system will see the question paper uploaded to a central server. Access to the question paper will be through security keys, which will be conveyed to officials via a text message on the day of the exam.
Source: The Hindustan Times
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