New Delhi, November 04: With the objective to prevent malpractice in colleges and universities during examinations, the University Grants Commission (UGC) recently has given strict instruction to universities and higher educational institutions to install jammers in examination centres. The UGC has also asked them to comply with the government’s policy.
Jammers in examination halls
The development comes after the government in 2016 had allowed statutory examination conducting bodies to install low-powered jammers in examination halls to prevent the use of unfair means through radio frequency-based devices.
“You must ensure adherence to the provision of government’s policy on jammers in your university or college,” the letter from the UGC to colleges reads.
Specific models
Specifying that classroom jammer model EC-CRJ-6B5 should be installed, the UGC said the devices have been successfully evaluated through lab tests and field trials by a board of officers. The UGC also suggested that jammer model should be used at places where there is no Base Transceiver Station (BTS) within 100 metres of the site.
“Performance of jammers deployed in each examination centre will be verified before the commencement of examination as effectiveness of jammers depends on various factors like its power output, the signal strength of BTS, the traffic load on BTS at a given point of time, distance of jammer from BTS, the sensitivity of receiver, terrain, topography, and line of sight etc,” the UGC stated in the letter.
“Actual deployment of jammers will require prior permission of Secretary (Security) in terms of the jammer policy of the government,” the UGC letter further added.
The UGC has asked the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and the Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) to supply and install the low-powered jammers in examination halls on a rental basis.
Bangalore University Leads
After the UGC guidelines, the Bangalore University was the first in the state to install jammers to prevent malpractice in the exams. The university has, meanwhile, also decided to communicate the decision to its affiliated institutions and colleges as examination centres, asking them to install jammers in their respective exam halls as safety measures.
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