Open Book Examination

A supervisor caught ten students copying during the internal assessment examination of obstetrics and gynecology. The normal course followed by all departments is to stop their copying, warn them not to do that again and carry on with the examination. But she was from another institute and did not know the routine. “It was so shocking” she said in the departmental office. “The students in this prestigious institute should be copying! We could not get admission here because we had less marks in the common entrance test. Why should people more intelligent than us have to copy?” “It is no good just talking about it” advised one staff member who really had nothing to do with it. “Put up a written complaint to the head of department.” The supervisor took that advice and put up a complaint to me. I could not just throw the complaint away after calling the students and warning them in a stern voice, because people could say I hushed up the matter for reasons best known to me. The website of the university had no instructions on handling such a complaint. So I sent the complaint to the academic committee, hoping they would get advice from the university on how to handle such a complaint. They did not ask the university. It was decided by them to appoint a subcommittee to decide how to deal with copying during internal assessment examination. They were apparently told by the boss to call the students and their parents and speak to them in strict tones (fire them was the literal translation). Two months and ten days passed before the meeting of the committee members and students and their parents took place today. The secretary of the committee had apparently sworn she would get the boss to attend. But the boss had other work, and he asked a senior professor to chair the proceedings. The accused with sullen faces and their parents with indignant faces sat on one side of a conference table. The committee members sat on the other side. The head of the supervising unit, the complaint adviser and the head of the complaining department (me) sat behind the committee members. The secretary of the committee spoke at length about the copying episode, how painful it was, how wrong it was, and added a bit of philosophy. Then she asked the chairperson to say anything she wished. “Do you have anything to say?” asked the acting chairman. Her hair appeared not to have been washed for the last five years. I had second thoughts about it and looked more closely. I could have been wrong. It might have been six years. “I forwarded the complaint asking the academic committee to tell us what to do. What more can I say?” “Problems like this in my department are sorted out locally by us and not sent to the academic committee” the chairperson said. I knew she probably resented having had to come to the institute at the ungodly hour of 10:00 A.M and then do some boring work like attending a silly meeting on something that had nothing to do with her department. She asked a parent to say something, and he said his daughter was innocent, that mere possession of a book during examination was not copying. “The whole class had books” said another. “Why single out only ten students?” “Is the complaining supervisor here?” asked the chairperson. “No” I said. “She should have come” said the chairperson. “She has left the institute. This copying took place two months ten days ago” I said in tone implying the committee should not have remain inactive for that long. “Was there any other complaint?” asked the chairperson. She reminded me of a not so smart policeman asking questions about a robbery in an old TV serial. “Were there any other books?” asked the policeman … er … the chairperson. I got irritated at that point. “Please give her the letter of complaint to read” I said in a loud and clear voice. “I have seen the complaint” she snapped. The manner was that of snake whose tail had been stepped over by someone. But I think she got the message and stopped asking intelligent-sounding questions. Then a lot of committee members spoke, tlling how it was wrong, and how copying was wrong, and why the students should be good and not indulge in such behavior. Finally someone asked the students to admit if they had copied. “I copied” said one fellow. “I copied too” said two others simultaneously. No student got up and said he/she had not copied. “Why did you copy?” asked one committee member. “We had been told by senior batch students that these internal assessment examinations were ‘open book’ examinations. So we opened our books and copied. The committee members were stunned. Another student got up and repeated the same statement. The committee members were not stunned, because they had already been stunned to the maximum degree. “If they want open-book examinations, I will let them have those. I will set the papers so tough, they cannot find the answers in their books” I told my neighboring committee member. I had no plan of doing so, but the concept was unsettling, and I had to say something to let off steam. “I copied because everyone else was copying, and if I did not copy, they would get more marks than I” said another one. “I copied only one answer” said one. “Only one.” “I had not heard of the open-book business” said another student. “The exam was at a time when it was not possible to be prepared fully. I had to copy.” “Yes, we had no time to prepare” said many of them. I had had enough by that time. I had spent one hour talking to the entire class of students about their poor attendance in lectures two weeks ago. I had the statistics with me. “I know why they copy” I said. “Normally I don’t bother the parents with such matters because it would hurt them. But some parents communicated with us that their wards were excellent students and were exemplary in behavior and would never copy in examinations. Please listen to their attendance records. They have to have 75% attendance during their theory lectures.” Then I read out the names of the ten students and their attendance figures, which ranged between 12.5% and 34.5%. “Do you realize that none of them can appear for the university examination because of this? Did they tell you parents what I told them in this connection over a period of one hour? Do you know what they do when they don’t attend lectures? They are in canteen, on the katta, outside library, or home. I would not mind if they studied to topics by themselves the same day as they were taught in their absence. But they don’t. They cannot be ready for exams if they have not learned those things. The parent who is home has to know that something is seriously wrong if the son/daughter is home during college hours. If the parent does not do anything about it, the parent is as responsible as the student for whatever happens. We are kind people and we are holding extra lectures for them so that they can fulfill the requirement of attendance and be able to appear for exam. I suggest that the parents do something about the matter though. It is not too late. This may be their final year in this college, but they have their lives ahead of them. Make them learn the right values. There cannot be any shortcuts in life, because they always backfire or misfire.” Neither the students and parents nor the committee members had anything to say after that.