Keane Insight - News Analysis

IIBF, Sify pioneer new way of conducting examinations

Question papers are leaked with regularity in India. But a pioneering effort by the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance may just show the way ahead for Indian examinations. SRIKANTH R P writes about a new system that eliminates both leaks and copying

DIPAN BHATTACHARYA says that Sify plans to forge tie-ups with government institutions to conduct online examinations just like it does for IIBF

EVERYONE knows the tension of appearing for examinations, the frustration when they are cancelled, and the anxiety of waiting for the results. Can technology come to the rescue? While the stress of waiting for an examination cannot be overcome with technology—at least for the moment—IIBF’s (Indian Institute of Banking and Finance) initiative of taking its examinations online can help students overcome the anxiety of waiting for the results. With the help of Sify, the 76-year-old institution allowed 20,000 candidates to take two of its important examinations online. This initiative saw the students giving their examinations in 391 cybercafes across 15 cities. Unlike the past, the candidate immediately knew the status of his/her results and he/she could take a printout of the results.

This simple but pioneering initiative has solved two big issues. The IIBF conducts over half a dozen exams every six months. More than one lakh candidates appear for these exams all over the country. These exams are critical for bank officers since their grade and salary increments are based on the candidate’s performance in these exams. More than 80 percent of the banking industry in India are members of the IIBF. As the number of officers taking the examinations grew, IIBF faced multiple challenges. Besides ensuring that sufficient quantities of question papers reach the examination halls at all centres, the institution had to also guard against paper leakage. Additionally, because of the huge number of people writing the examinations, results were delayed. In fact, this is the prime reason that IIBF conducts examinations only twice a year.

The institute finally came to the view that taking examinations online could be one way of solving multiple issues. But as it did not have the required infrastructure across all its centres, the organisation decided to outsource its requirements.

Accordingly, IIBF floated a tender to enable the company to conduct its examinations online. Though many organisations bid for the project, Sify got the nod because of its vast network of cybercafes spread across the length and breadth of the country. Apart from addressing the usual challenges of availability of machines and security, the biggest problem was in the restructuring of content from a descriptive mode to an objective format. After restructuring of the content and conducting numerous mock tests, the system was finally approved.

Says R H Sharma, chief executive officer, IIBF, “The new system has brought about a major shift in the way examinations have been conducted. Respondents no longer have to travel to faraway exam centres and can appear at places that are closer to their homes. Additionally, the entire process of conducting examinations is much faster since there is no problem of physically delivering question papers to the examination centres.”

R H SHARMA says candidates no longer have to travel to faraway examination centres with the new system coming into place

For candidates unfamiliar with computers, there is a sample test to make candidates comfortable with the technology. Since question papers are generated randomly, question paper leakage is not possible. Moreover, copying is not possible since each candidate gets a unique question paper. Additionally, the PC will run only the examination module. This means that typing a search in Google for help is not possible. More importantly, the candidate gets instant results. With the success of this initiative, IIBF now wants to enable the concept of ‘examinations on tap’. This means that any candidate can sit for any banking examination anytime he/she wants. As for Sify, after its success with this initiative, it is looking at partnering with other like-minded organisations. Says Dipan Bhattacharya, vice president, enterprise solutions, Sify, “The IIBF examinations were just the beginning. We plan to forge similar tie-ups with government institutions.”

Now think of the impact if the government decides to conduct every examination in an online mode.

srikanth@expresscomputeronline.com