Karnataka government decides to implement end-to-end digital examination system for the semester exams of Nursing and paramedical courses

The State government has chosen to introduce an "end-to-end digital examination system" for the semester examinations of nursing and paramedical courses to reduce the number of "ghost students," "ghost writers," and "ghost colleges" and to increase transparency. The new approach includes digital question papers and digital assessment which will be put into place by the government between 2023 and 2024. In this respect, the Directorate of Medical Education has provided the government with a thorough project study, and the process of obtaining authorization to tender is now underway.

"We have seen several claims and abnormalities in the State's nursing and paramedical examinations during the past two years. Ghost authors, ghost students, ghost colleges, and other forms of misconduct are frequent in these exams, and many universities have been breaking government norms and regulations. Thus, we made the decision to establish an end-to-end digital examination system throughout the State in order to stop all of these anomalies and promote transparency," stated B.L. Sujatha Rathod, Director of the Directorate of Medical Education.

The majority of private nursing institutions target out-of-state students and charge expensive fees for seats, since nursing and paramedical colleges have proliferated throughout the State. Fake students, students who merely show up for the exam without attending the college, ghost writers for exams, mass copying, and other exam malpractices are also issues. A private nursing college in Kalaburagi was recently ordered by the Karnataka High Court to compensate ten students it had fraudulently recruited, each with ₹10 lakh. At Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), there has also been talk of a possible phoney bill fraud. Four nursing schools are accused of producing phoney receipts for affiliation fees.

In 2023–2024, the Common Entrance Test (CET) will be required for nursing admission nationwide in an effort to stop all of these anomalies. This year's CET nursing admission was successfully completed by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA). Consequently, the State government has chosen to introduce the "end-to-end digital examination system" for courses in nursing and paramedicine.

For every student, the government will designate a unique login ID as part of the new system. The students will only get information via this ID, including test, admission, cost, and other details. The digital entrance tickets will be issued to the students' login IDs rather than the college principal. After downloading their entry tickets, pupils will show up for the test.

The Directorate of Medical test has chosen to transmit the digitised question papers to the relevant college principal on the day of the test in order to prevent question paper leaks and other malpractices. Then, after downloading and printing them, the authorities will provide them to the kids. A significant component of the end-to-end digital examination system is digital assessment. All of the answer papers will be digitised and converted to digital format following the theoretical test. After that, these response sheets will be evaluated by assessors using computers. According to authorities, this will also contribute in the findings' early announcement. 

"A fully digitalized monitoring system is everything that the end-to-end digital examination system is. The entrance ticketing and student identification processes will come first, while the digital assessment procedure will come last. The largest step is the digital assessment system, which requires a separate computer system and expensive software. We have sent the government the comprehensive project report, to get approval for the tenders and intend to implement the new system from this school year, Dr.Rathod explained.