A slew of paper leak instances & social media acting as the epicentre to propel the crime is deterring the confidence of students. Rangoli Agrawal diagnoses the psychological denting of the confidence of aspirants
Last few months have been marred by several paper leak instances and rumours. And what’s disturbing is the role of social media in instigating such cases as it is fraught with stuff related to examination papers that acts as a potential distraction even for bright students. From rumours of leak of REET examination paper to CBSE paper leak, social media has played a crucial role in denting the psychology of the students.
“Social media has a lot of fake news. This creates a huge negative impact on good students as they are unable to study one day before the exam, so good candidates do not get selected in competitive exam. There are several students who also get the paper one day before the exam, even they are unable to study because they are always in the dilemma whether the same paper will be placed on the table the next day or not,” said Ananya Hemani, owner, city-based coaching centre.
City-based schools also believe that it is the fault of the boards and it brings down the credibility of the certificates.
“Social media is necessary, but we need proper security systems to prevent paper leak. We need to tighten our security. It is shattering for a student. It sends out a very bad message to the world that our systems are so weak. People will stop believing our report cards of standard 10th and 12th,” said Jayshree Periwal, director, Jayshree Periwal International School.
Harit Saxena, city-based commerce teacher, further added that students staying out of the city also go through some financial loss in addition to the mental pressure, as they have to take a trip to Jaipur again to give the exam.
WhatsApp wildfire
Instant messaging applications like WhatsApp have turned into a mode for spreading rumours like wildfire as messages keep getting forwarded left, right, and centre without being verified by the user. This has led to increased negative psychological impact and anxiety among students. Most students spend nights before exams thinking whether the paper has been leaked or not as messages keep circulating around on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. Some students, however, despite having the question paper in hand, sleep restlessly wondering whether what they’ve studied will be enough the exam day.
What Police says
There are ways to curb such things. When you focus on network security, application security, and work on the operating system level, these crimes can be considerably controlled. Whoever is conducting an online exam should conduct a proper security of the process. It is the lapses on the part of people who are conducting the exams. Such crimes are preventable but necessary measures need to be taken. It is not failure of technology. We need to bring out clear policy guidelines for conducting online exams which do not exist yet.
—Sharat Kaviraj,
Deputy inspector general of police, SCRB
What Psychologists says
Those students who are very laborious and give exams with sincerity get very demotivated. Those who are mediocre, or opportunities, will do a lot of hue and cry but know they anyway cannot score. Those who score through the good ones are the ones who get trained to be the policy makers. They have the knack of getting things done in the wrong way right from the beginning, and they can do it throughout their lives. Steps like leak of papers gives the kind of boosts to them that they lose focus.
—Dr. Manaswi Gautam, city-based psychiatrist
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