CBI to probe malpractice in SSC exams

Hyderabad: The nation-wide protest that broke out alleging malpractice and irregularities in the Staff Selection Commission (SSC)  examination has finally moved the Central government, with the Union Home minister ordering a CBI probe. This is not enough for the protesters who say they will continue the protests until a proper format is released.  Scores of candidates have been sitting on a protest in New Delhi since February 27. They allege that one of the key answer sheets of Quantitative Abilities (paper 1) scheduled for February 21 was leaked online before the examination. Also, the questions of the SSC CGL 17 tier-2 exam, which was to be conducted from February 17 to 20, went viral on social media.

The candidates relate this scam to the AIIMS paper leak in 2017 and the Neet post-graduation scam in 2016. In fact, they say this is a bigger scam than the notorious VYAPAM scam of Madhya Pradesh. In a complaint written by the protesting aspirants to the union government, it was explained, “There are huge issues related to the exam conducting vendors since its inception, especially those who conduct online examination for the SSC. Many shortcomings in the software of the vendor were reported to SSC time and again, but all went in vain. Since it’s a private company (a vendor that conducts exam) a proper audit should have been done by the commission or any third party approved by the commission.”

There is also a complaint about the software audit. The protesting candidates say that the SSC referred the exam conducting software audit to the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), but NTRO would not take it on. It was the duty of the government to then get an audit done by another government agency or inform the Prime Minister’s office, they say, but no audit of the examination software was done and SSC has continued conducting examinations for two years without the audit.

Contract staff behind leaks

The SSC has also come under fire for the manner in which its exams are being conducted. A majority of the staff deployed during examinations, such as invigilators and security, are on contract and do not fear losing their jobs if accused of malpractice. No police verification is conducted of these employees by the SSC or by the private companies holding the examination. These employees are the weakest links and most likely responsible for the paper leaks.
The other side of the racket is, it is being alleged that the vendors (companies that conduct the online examination) subcontract the examination centres.

The vendors ask the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) to approve these centres as examination centres. These private examination centres encourage malpractices through remote access or by providing answer keys during the examination. In majority of the examination centres, seldom are any SSC official deployed. 

The candidates who are protesting against the whole system of conducting these examinations say that since the current exam vendor is under suspicion due to various allegations, there must be a stay on the examination to be conducted in the coming days, that is, the SSC Combined Higher Level Secondary, to be held in March and the CGL 2017 Tier 2 re-exam also in March.