Chennai: After plus-2 question paper was leaked in WhatsApp last year, the school education department has ordered all educational officers to strictly enforce the no cellphone rule during the public exams, scheduled to commence from March 4.
“Teachers who work as invigilators are not permitted to carry cellphones inside the examination centre. All teachers should hand over their cell phones to the chief invigilators and the instruments should be locked in a separate room,” department officials said.
Last year, an invigilator at a private school at Hosur was found with the cellphone inside the examination hall during the exams. When the flying squad searched the phone it was revealed that he had taken photographs of the maths question paper and sent it to three other teachers on WhatsApp. Four teachers were arrested.
In an examination review meeting for educational officers here on Friday, the department ordered officers to strictly follow the rule and make sure that no teacher carries phone inside examination centre, sources said.
An educational officer who attended the meeting told DC that school education secretary D.Sabitha called for team work and asked educational officers to conduct the examination in a fair and smooth manner.
They were also told to sensitise students regarding striking out of the answer sheets. This year the examination department has announced that striking out answer sheets will attract a ban for two years from appearing for the exam.
During public exams, many students from Namakkal, Erode and Karur districts strike out their answer sheets if they are not able to score full marks in the exams. This will make them eligible to appear for the instant exam which is relatively easier than the March exams.
So, many students started to follow this to get admission for BE and MBBS courses. Last year, the number of students striking out their answer sheets rose significantly. To prevent this, no striking out rule is being introduced from this year.
