Bhopal: National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) run centres in Madhya Pradesh lack transparency and accountability.
An investigation by News18 of NIOS study and exam centres in Madhya Pradesh has revealed that the system lacks local monitoring and faces dearth of accountability at different levels in a system that runs digitally.
NIOS has been facing heat over alleged anomalies in class X and XII exams at three exam centres in the state.
Following allegations that hundreds of class X and XII students enrolled at three MP study centres of NIOS in Umaria, Ratlam and Sehore cleared the exams without actually appearing for them, NIOS chairman Chandra B Sharma had ordered a probe on August 22.
Dushyant Dangi, state secretary of the Aam Aadmi Party, told News18 that as against 693, 353 and 178 students who registered for exams at Ratlam, Sehore and Umaria respectively; only 19, 2 and 3 students appeared in exams at the centres.
“Majority of them not only passed the exams but most of them scored marks in exams which they never took,” Dangi said, claiming he had the attendance sheet and results with him.
The centres in Madhya Pradesh have enrolled students from cities like New Delhi, Patna and others in groups which is also suspicious, he said.
When contacted, the exam centres said they were only responsible for holding the exams while study centres pleaded ignorance about anomalies, saying they are only responsible for holding contact classes as exams were conducted elsewhere and students were enrolled online.
“We are only concerned with contact classes and have no further control over either exams or results,” JP Shukla, one of the administrators from NIOS Ratlam study centre, told News18. The exam centre in-charge Gracy Lakra was not available.
On being asked about attendance goof up, Vibhu Vajpayee, NIOS Sehore exam centre in-charge, told News18 that they were only concerned with holding exams and sending attendance sheets and answer sheets to NIOS headquarters. Vajpayee claimed that she could not remember attendance ratio in exams. According to records, only two of 353 candidates took the exam.
Similarly, Umaria exam centre in-charge, SP Dubey, claimed that they only had to hold exams and they forwarded the attendance sheets to NIOS.
Meanwhile, several study centres on condition of anonymity claimed that while any student enrolling with NIOS has to furnish a rent agreement for proving local residential status, a large number produce fake documents and no one verifies them physically.
“We seldom hold contact classes as we don’t get paid for this,” one of the study centre owner said.
SR Khan, Regional Director, NIOS, claimed that they hold exams in best possible manner and keep records of students with them in accordance with the norms. Claiming that he was not authorised to speak on the NIOS issues, he added that the headquarters had conducted a probe into the allegations and the chairman could shed more light on the issue.
However, an officer from NIOS Bhopal claimed that as the results of 1000 students have been withheld, several genuine students are now running from pillar to posts to get their mark sheets which they require to submit at the institutions where they are pursuing higher studies.
The controversy over NIOS exams have brought back memories of the Vyapam scam which exposed deep rot in state’s education system
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