Why Blocking Telegram Won’t Fix India’s Exam Leak Crisis

By

Aaryan Bora, Political Columnist

The 'NEET-UG' entrance exam is an undergraduate medical assessment taken nationwide by aspiring medical students in India. However, it was just a few months ago that the exam paper leaked, causing widespread controversy in India. The government decided to re-conduct the entrance examination, while also temporarily banning Telegram across India to prevent paper leaks. 


The intention behind the Indian government's action is mainly to curb the spread of leaked papers and prevent cheating. The policy will not stop examination papers from being leaked, but it could prevent a high number of applicants from viewing the entrance exam in advance, through the messaging app.

In my mind, a social media website can’t be blamed for a crisis, which is a huge institutional failure and seems a large government failure, too.

The controversy towards NEET is becoming one of the biggest educational scandals in recent history. When the examination was cancelled in May, it caused many of the students and their families to be utterly shattered. Students have worked hard preparing for the examination, and if further situations like this happen, it could break the morale of those students. 

Investigations took place, and they led to huge arrests of the people who were responsible for this scandal. The authorities further decided to ban Telegram as the app was associated with cheating in various channels and groups. The decision is to temporarily restrict access to Telegram to stop this scandal.

If we think properly, we cannot blame Telegram for paper leaks or any other platform because paper leaks do not explicitly originate on messaging platforms, but they mainly come when there’s a system failure. It occurs during the preparation of the question paper, distribution, printing, etc. Digital platforms merely become the tool for sharing, but it’s not the problem. We can argue that many people are not happy with the decisions of the government. It is just because of a few people that the whole nation must suffer.

The authorities have taken a very decisive step at a very bad time because thousands of students who use this platform in good faith for studying purposes. Restricting access towards the platform where various students use it for educational purposes is a very disappointing step, I believe. Whenever any problems occur like this, the government decides to restrict social media websites, but it is not the ultimate solution. Instead of banning the apps, they should develop such a system where there will be no paper leaks.

If we think of ourselves as students, it is so stressful and frustrating when a leak, cancellation and re-examination occur because it affects the students the most. Some students take extreme steps when this problem occurs, and it is very sad. The real thing is not how the authorities will think of the solution, but how they will build such an environment where the students would feel confident enough towards the examination process. Blocking this app could prevent paper leaks for a short period of time, but it is not an ultimate solution towards pear leak. To stop this, we need stronger security protocols, good transparency and accountability instead of blocking apps. 

When the paper is being prepared and distributed, etc., there should be heavy security and strict rules to prevent such acts. The battle against this war is not by restricting communication websites alone, but by fixing the bugs that are causing it and, most importantly, fixing the institutions that are letting it happen.

Check out Aaryan's LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaryan-bora-41105b266/

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