Apps and coordination: Learning from other schools

While the state board has started taking different precautionary measures such as restricting students from entering the exam centre after 11 am to prohibiting mobile phones in exam centres, it has still not been able to curb malpractices such as exam paper leaks.

While the Maharashtra State Board keeps its state board exam papers in schools that are custody centres under the observation of policemen as precautionary measures, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) keeps question papers at a nationalised bank and tracks its movement through a mobile application used by the Centre Superintendent (CS), that is, the school's principal, who goes to collect the question paper. Similarly, the ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) board also keeps exam question papers in bank lockers.

DNA spoke to officials from other boards to know how board exams are conducted and what precautionary measures are taken to curb malpractices. Deepshikha Srivastava, Rajhans Vidyalaya, CBSE School principal, Andheri, said, "The CBSE board has always taken strict precautionary measures and so there has never been a paper leak in the past several years, except last year, when Maths and Economic board exam papers were leaked."

During CBSE board exams, the CS (principal of the school) has to use a mobile application, given by the board, to track the CS' movement as he/she travels to the bank to collect the question papers for the exam centre.