DailyPost 2852
EXAM BODIES – DO THEY NEED EXTERNAL AUDIT & LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT?
It seems to be a hard time for the exam bodies. Today there are any number of ways of whistleblower type information coming out in the public domain. Once out in the public domain, the nature of scrutiny hits the roof; of intensive validation, finding contradictions, and efforts of reconciliation with data / information already available over the internet. The insights can be killing. After NTA, now it is UPSC. NTA was put in the dock for messing up the NEET exams 2024 and the UPSC based on the damning revelations coming out everyday in the Puja Khedkar case.
Insularity and extreme confidentiality does not augur well for examination bodies in the present day and age. Lots of these exam bodies barely reply to queries, exercising one of its kind immunity. Brand building for such bodies happens after practising and displaying utmost integrity over years, with barely any lapses. People start swearing by the name of such organisations. Such organisations then have to live upto the lofty credibility they have earned hard for themselves. Even if it were to be picture perfect, in current complex times and complex nature of exams conducted, with tech also playing truant, putting all the eggs in the same basket and expecting none would break even in turbulent times, can at best be called foolhardy, and in the worst case scenario can turn out to be suicidal.
Can an exam body with hands full in conducting exams be expected to be doing a detached audit of itself. Does it have the resources or the skill or a mandated inclination. Audit is a third party and an external task, mostly mandatory in the organisations for financial and performance issues. It seems to be a must for the exam bodies, both from the process point of view, data point of view and for the supply chain – from creation of the question paper- online / offline or hybrid. The quality of question papers in another area. Tech employed is of utmost value; on it depends the success and failure of the system. Reckless tendering of different tasks can be another area of audit. The team should have the expertise to conduct this audit, which is not of the mundane variety. The fear of audit itself can keep organisations under check.
Oversight on a regular basis is necessary for operational issues, and a mechanism needs to be created which can perform this on a regular basis on the charter laid out for it. There are standard protocols for these purposes on the nature of tasks and activities which should come under the oversight mandate. This nature of oversight would iron out all the operational issues including lapses and discrepancies and keep the organisation fighting fit. Besides this, there is a need for legislative oversight by a committee which can take care of major federal exam bodies. This oversight would be restricted to the organisational level. The legislative oversight committee will be supported by experts who between them should have 360 degrees expertise of concerned exams end to end. This committee will have a sobering impact on the complete examination ecosystem, The sanctity of exams is paramount.
INSULAR EXAM BODIES RUN HUGE RISKS!
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.