The case for CBT: Fixing India’s flawed public exams

Following the NEET UG exam fiasco earlier this year, the Ministry of Education faces the challenge of creating a roadmap for a tamper-free, transparent, and zero-error examination system as directed by the Supreme Court of India.

Recognising the students’ pain and plight, the SC Bench, comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, admonished the National Testing Agency (NTA) for its repeated mishandling of the examination process, which has not served students’ interests.

In addition to reports of paper leaks and impersonation during the NEET exam, other public exams have also been marred by cancellation, postponement, and rescheduling. This has understandably shaken the public confidence—especially among students—in the NTA’s ability to conduct the public examinations.

The successful conduct of public examinations is not a rarity. Year after year, several countries conduct standardised tests for university admissions without major issues, both for local and international students. Exams such as GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, and SAT enjoy high credibility and trust worldwide.

What do these organisations do differently from India’s apex examination body, the NTA? Despite being non-government private entities, they maintain high levels of integrity by successfully managing two critical processes—paper-setting and operational logistics—with precision and quality control.

The process of paper setting for standardised tests involves several key steps to ensure a fair, reliable, and valid assessment tool. Specialised committees of subject matter experts finalise the syllabus, format the test paper, write and review test items, and conduct pilot testing. This is followed by statistical analysis to evaluate the difficulty, discrimination, and reliability of each question. Based on the analysis, test items that do not meet the criteria are modified or discarded, and the approved test items are used to create balanced test papers that adhere strictly to the pre-determined blueprint. Diligently following this process ensures that standardised tests are reliable and valid, providing an accurate measure of the test taker’s abilities and knowledge.

Despite following these recommended processes, issues persist. Each year, questions are found to be either out of the syllabus or market incorrect by examiners due to errors in the or two are either out of the syllabus or marked wrongly by the examiners based on the incorrect answer keys provided to them.

This year too, students were penalised for answering a question based on incorrect information from a prescribed textbook. Holding the bureaucrats in charge and the subject matter experts accountable and taking punitive action against them for jeopardising the lives of young students should help curtail such carelessness.

The operational aspects of the public exams are particularly prone to malpractices such as theft of test papers, bribery, and impersonation. The impact of these malpractices is severe as it invalidates an entire examination—a huge academic and logistical exercise.

The only solution to safeguard the operational process is to switch to computer-based exams (CBT), which will help control malpractices by bringing in transparency, speed, and scalability to the operations. By standardising instructions, question selection, evaluation criteria, and exam timings, CBT ensures a uniform testing experience for all participants.

The algorithm-based random selection of questions from a large pool makes it nearly impossible to predict the test paper, eliminating the chances of selective preparation by a select group of candidates. A significant advantage of CBT is the efficient management of time, as exams start and end on schedule with no room for delays. Result processing is fully automated, leading to quicker, error-free outcomes.

As CBT operates on algorithms, it prevents human manipulation, ensuring fairness and consistency. Automated testing eliminates potential human errors and biases, so each test taker is assessed solely on their performance.

CBT also ensures the integrity of exams by limiting access to test materials to authorised individuals only, with encrypted test data protecting against security breaches. Cheating and impersonation are prevented through online proctoring via webcams and microphones, with artificial intelligence detecting suspicious movements during the test. Combined with physical invigilation, exam centres become virtually impenetrable. The CBT also maintains detailed logs of all system access, creating an audit trail to identify wrongdoers in the event of malpractice.

The efficiency, scalability, and adaptability of CBTs allow for broader access, reaching a larger and more diverse group of test-takers across India. CBT is also economical and eco-friendly, reducing the need for printed question papers and other stationery and leaving a low carbon footprint. Critics who argue that the high-tech requirements of CBT make it infeasible in India overlook the near-total digitisation of India’s banking sector in recent years, with most transactions now taking place online.

The Government of India’s ‘Digital India’ push has transformed sectors like banking, healthcare, education, communication, and entertainment. The online initiatives by NCERT, such as PMeVidya and Diksha, successfully delivered education through TV and the internet during the lockdown, proving the potential for digitising public exams.

The benefits of digitalising public exams far outweigh the challenges. It is time for the education and IT ministries to collaborate, investing in infrastructure such as reliable internet connections and computer facilities, to ensure the successful conduct of public examinations through strategic planning and phased implementation.

India is one of the most successful examples of public-private partnerships in education; extending it to conduct successful public examinations could play a crucial role in bridging the digital divide to ensure that all students, regardless of their location and socio-economic status, can take college entrance exams with confidence, secure in the knowledge that they will be treated fairly.

In conclusion, adopting CBT for high-stakes public exams like NEET would ensure they are tamper-free, transparent, and error-free, as directed by the Supreme Court. This change would restore public confidence in the examination process, providing a reliable, professional pathway for millions of aspiring young Indians.

(The author is a former member of the Educational Research and Innovations Committee, NCERT)