Annexure 4: Malpractices in NOS Admission and Examinations

A. Common Malpractices in Admission

The NOS prospectus is sold to prospective candidates at a cost RS.25/- by the Accredited Institutions (AIs). The prospectus includes the admission form to be filled by the candidate, along with the directions as well as the fee structure for each course. It has come to the notice of the NOS that some unscrupulous agencies charge more than the prescribed fee and gent the forms filled without making the prospectus available to the candidates. These agencies very often collude with the Accredited Institutes (AIs) and collect the prospectus and forms from them.

Every year, NOS releases 600 prospectuses including admissions forms to each AI. There are instances that on the very day, forms are exhausted at many a centre. It is surmised that such centres provide prospectus/forms to private coaching institutes. Thus the students end up paying 2 1/2 to 3 times more than the legitimate admission fee which is at present Rs.800/- for the Secondary Course and Rs.925/- for the Senior Secondary Course.

B. malpractices in Distribution of Study Material, Identity Cards, etc:

Study material to the students are provided through AIs. No additional amount is required to be paid by students to the AIs for this purpose. Complaints have been received that some of the AIs change extra money for the study material and also for Identity Cards, Mark sheets, etc. Such cases should be immediately reported to the NOS.

C. Malpractices in Examination

Impersonation at Study Centres

Since NOS provides education through open schooling, direct face-to-face contact with the students is not possible. The identity card carries a photograph of the learner and the Centre’s Superintendent is instructed to match the candidate with the photograph for being allowed into the examination hall. However, in some cases, it has been suspected that photographs have been changed to allow some one else to appear for the original candidate. Whenever such cases are caught, the candidate is punished under the provisions of unfair means.

There is also a likelihood that while enrolling, someone else's photograph instead that of the candidate is affixed to facilitate impersonation and writing the examination for the candidate. The NOS has taken steps to check these two malpractices by having photographs scanned on the final certificate so that even if somebody else appears for the candidate, the photograph of the person impersonating appears on the certificate and renders it non-usable by the candidate who never wrote the examination.

Copying

Some unscrupulous agencies hold out an assurance to candidates of getting them passed and enter in league with the centre concerned to facilitate copying. Instances of individual and mass copying are often reported but many might go unreported. In case of individual copying, penal action is awarded by the Unfair Means (UFM) Committee to who such cases are referred. The candidates are provided with an opportunity to defend themselves before the UFM Committee.

In case of mass copying, the scripts are compared with each other and action is taken against students as well as the centre as per UFM Committee regulations. Therefore, many a time, institutions holding out certain assurance may not always be able to fulfil their promises and students lose their hard earned money. There is every possibility of such cases being detected. The examiners are advised to report similarity or identical answers of two more candidates to the NOS authorities for verification of copying/mass copying cases.