SEE exam: WhatsApp used for cheating
The guards were arrested when a monitoring team, led by the Chief District Officer (CDO) of Sunsari, Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, arrived at the examination center.
KATHMANDU: The use of mobile phones for cheating during the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) has been confirmed this year. It has been revealed that “WhatsApp” was used to assist in cheating during the SEE exams.
In a recent incident at the Saraswati Secondary School examination center in Inaruwa-9, Sunsari, two guards were caught red-handed using WhatsApp to assist students in cheating during the Mathematics exam.
The guards were arrested when a monitoring team, led by the Chief District Officer (CDO) of Sunsari, Dharmendra Kumar Mishra, arrived at the examination center.
Upon inspecting the guards’ mobile phones, it was found that one of the teachers assigned to the center had used WhatsApp to communicate about the cheating, exchanging details like students’ names, symbol numbers, and the number of students from boarding schools.
The teachers involved, Shravan Kumar Chaudhary and Ramanand Mehtal, were dismissed from their roles as exam guards.
Furthermore, during the inspection, three invigilators were detained from the Bhagwati Secondary School exam center in Inaruwa-1.
Mukendra Yadav, Ramanand Yadav, and Dinesh Prasad Yadav from Inaruwa-5 were taken into custody. The investigation into the arrested individuals is ongoing, as confirmed by Sunsari’s Superintendent of Police, Suman Timilsina.
In response to these activities, the Sunsari administration has instructed stricter mobile phone checks at examination centers.
Recently, two guards were dismissed from their positions in Duhabi for charging students a fee of Rs 10,000 each.
To ensure a fair examination process and discourage cheating, a team has been deployed to monitor the examination centers.
According to CDO Mishra, the monitoring team found that some invigilators had created WhatsApp groups to share the question paper with outsiders, who then sent back the answers for the students.
Just last Thursday, two invigilators were dismissed from Saraswati Secondary School in Duhabi and Gadhi’s Saraswati Secondary School after unauthorized activities were found, including the involvement of subject teachers.
The center heads of both schools have been warned to ensure no further mistakes in the future.
In an effort to maintain an orderly, dignified, peaceful, and fear-free examination process, all examination center heads have been advised to take necessary precautions. Initial investigations indicate that invigilators, particularly from private schools, have been bribed by school operators seeking to improve their school’s performance.
The school operators were found to have been involved in financial transactions that led to the corruption of invigilators.
According to Khagendra Suvedi, the Chief of the Education Development and Coordination Unit, a total of 13,573 candidates participated in the exams at 50 exam centers across the district.
