Exam malpractice: bill to punish staff, students

The state government is planning to introduce a bill that provides for stringent punishment to public servants and students who indulge in examination malpractice. The bill envisages punishing government staff with imprisonment up to three years and fine, while students will be debarred from taking examination for six years, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Tanveer Sait said at the state-level educational convention of pre-university employees here on Sunday.

The minister said plans were afoot to open a school-cum-college on a single campus in each hobli so that students do not drop out. Such an institution will have class 1 till graduation. The government has also begun recruiting 1,900 pre-university lecturers. The Department of Pre-University Education  (DPUE) is also in talks with the Higher Education Department to promote eligible PU lecturers to degree colleges, he added.

Besides, the government is considering setting up a teachers’ welfare fund to provide health insurance to instructors and will pay a part of the premium. Sait further said a Cabinet sub-committee was reviewing the guidelines for sanctioning grants to private educational institutions.