Patna — Bihar Government's decision to appoint Patna High Court Judge Justice Harish Kumar as Chairman of the Bihar Examination Reforms Expert Committee is the first step towards the revamp of examination system following months of agitation by the students.

'The Bihar government had announced to set up an expert committee to improve various university, board, competitive and recruitment examinations following several instances of irregularities, cancellation and question leak. which led to protests. Other members of the committee will be announced soon,

'The committee will submit its recommendations for restoring the sanctity of examinations at various levels, including secondary, higher secondary, university. professional, technical and recruitment, to the Bihar gov- 'ernment within three months of its formation.

'The Bihar government had on August 23 last notified the formation of a five-member committee for examination reforms to look into the entire examination system and suggest meastures to prevent leak of question papers, cheating, impersonation, tampering of answer sheets, manipulation of results, management of exam centres and delays. The move comes amid growing need to make examinations more transparent. efficient and reliable, particularly for students and job aspirants appearing for competitive and recruitment tests.

Frequent protests

Bihar has been witnessing frequent protests by students over the last few years, with the BPSC, Bihar State University Service Commission, Bihar state SSC, Bihar State Technical Services Commission. and constable recruitment in Bihar police landing in controversy and thousands of cases lined up in court.

'The police recruitment results

Cheat sheet of 'exam frauds' After a series of exam fraud cases, the Bihar government has decided to overhaul system MAJOR FRAUD CASES Ath gt sf, © Aug 6, 2022: Bihar's Economic Offence Unit (EoU) fed "ie Se ge aN chargesheet against fourteen persons in connection f a a we 'with the paper leak of BPSC' 67th combined apn Goa? & eal (preliminary) examination held on May 8, 2022 o%: at» A & oo C). Nov 18, 2024: Bihar's £0U filed chargesheet = C7 x s My against 289 persons including Sanjeev Singh MRD +> alias Lutan Mukblya's son Or Shiv Kumar in : sr is TRE-3 paper leak case | — SB \w /S av QC) April 4-21, 2026: Asst. Education en % ' Development Officer (AEDO) Examination, [femme ~ se 'conducted by the Bihar Public Service ya be Commission Exam was lates conceded he by (sue 2, 2026: NEET Undergraduate): he } Bihar Police busted a "cheating racket" in YY ee Ne Lakhisarai. 30 people, induding 10 medical ), > =] students and 18 employees of a biometric ? +a ee | CONSTABLE RECRUITMENT | The Economic Offence Unit (EDU) filed chargesheet against 21 accused in the EXAMINATION 2023 } Ctl recruitment examconducted by the Central Selection Board (C58). have been withheld tll compleschedule would beannounced in examinations — the Assistant tion of inquiry. The Bihar Police accordance with the new Education Development Officer Subordinate Services Commis: changes. (AEDO) and Assistant Public sion (BPSSC) postponed the _ TRE-Ihasbeen pending fora Sanitary and Waste ManagePhysical Efficiency Test (PET) for long time and was a big issue ment Officer (APSWMO) exami1,799 Sub-Inspector (SI) posts, ahead of Assembly election also, nations — conducted in multiple which also led to protests and but it kept getting delayed for shifts during April 2026. The policeaction in August. 'one reason or the other, includcommission cited serious irreguThe 70th BPSC preliminary ing demand for conduct of Sec_larities, impersonation, cheating examination held in Patna had ondary Teachers Eligibility Test attempts and the use of Bluealso landed in controversy and (STET) priorto TRE-4. The STET tooth devices at several centres. had to be taken twicein Decemwas eventually held in Octoberber 2024 and January 2025. The November, 2025 and now Regular feature protests continued despite publ another STETisalso scheduled, The Munger police had busted cation of results due to very few — but TET-4 has remained stuck, an organized gang following the Hindi medium candidates quallThe candidates for competiarrest of 22 persons, including 18 fying. which was a departure tive examinations have been aspirants, during the AEDO. from the past. demanding lack of transparency examination, Investigations The 72nd BPSC Preliminary inthe systemand non-supply of _ revealed that the gang members, Examination, originally schedquestion papers and carbonless spread across the state and coluled for July 26, 2026, was also or digital OMR sheets, model _ lected lakhs of rupees to help postponed due to unavoidable answers and evaluated answer clear the examination organized Teasons and is now tentatively sheets, by the BPSC. set to be held in October. 'There was also protest against "In the last few years several Thousands of aspirants for absence of consolidated merit examinations have been canTeachers' Recruitment Exams list in the recruitment of assistcelled following allegations of also held a big protest in Patna ant professors. In the schooland irregularities. leading to protests demanding change in the patcollege teachers' recruitment, and court cases. tern of examination from twothere was also violation of gov: In Oct 2023, the Bihar Police phase to single phase, and ulti» ernment rosterforimplementa: Constable recruitment examina: mately the government had to. tion of quota and the matters tion was cancelled after question accede to their demands. also landed in the court. papers leaked on the very first The BPSC has now put on Earlier in May BPSChadcanday and reports surfaced of hold the TRE-4 and a fresh celled two major recruitment widespread cheating using electronic

devices. More than 18 lakh hary said that any system could applicants were affected. run asefficiently asthe men run In March 2024, the BPSCcanning it. "If men or women of celled the Teacher Recruitment integrity hold the right positions, Examination (TRE-3.0), conthings will change. Unfortuducted for over 87,000 posts. nately. appointments to key postafter allegations of paper leaks tions are done for extrancous emerged within hours of the reasons. which has a trickle examination. More than five down effect," he added. lakh candidates were impacted. He said that the concept of Investigating agencies have outsourcing the exam system - detected a new modus operandi right from the board) university to manipulate the technology level recruiting agencies level through human intervention in -alsocreated room for rot to set the recent competitiveexamina_ in, Earlier there was no concept tions in Bihar, whether conof outsourcing. which led to ducted by BPSC or Central elecaccountability," headded. tion Board of Constables (CSBC) Education expertand former |_| or NTA. which organised NEET. Patna University registrar Kha- "Instead of facilitating ques_ gendra Kumar said that with the tion papers leak in the last few malice running deep and for | exams, the new method involved years, it would require an overgetting biometric attendance haulofthesystem tofixaccountj tampered in connivance with the ability for question paper leak or | - agency handling it and its tampering with results, as the? employees to make scholars rot isnot confined to the com> | § impersonate for genuine examipetitive exams only, butalsoin | ( neesin the examination" saidan university and boardexams. | ( investigating official, adding "There can be only two |} mere adoption of new technol aspects of question papers leak | | 'ogy might not be the solution or tampering with results Either § until there are people using — the recruiting agency or some- | « them of high integrity. one from the agencyisinvolved In the face of growing presor the authorities are unable to sure over viral question papers, control things. Itisa systemic | 2 the Bihar state selection comproblem and without fixing | 5 mission (BSSC) had to cancel the — accountability. he problem can- | third graduate level joint prelimnot be addressed. For the sanc~ | ¢ inary test of the first sitting in _tityof exams, the accountability 2022. Over three lakh job aspiat variouslevels becomesimpor- | + rants had taken the exam. The tantbe itat the level of setting | ¢ BSSC was also in news in 2017 questions. their printing.alloca- | for question leak andarrestofits tion of centres etc. Therearealso chairman, who was later instances of political pressure or granted bail by the Supreme nexus." he added. Court. Another PU professor and educationist said that for restorUniversity & board ing sanctity of university and exams Bihar Board assessment process, 'The degeneration in the examiit would require comprehensive nation system in Bihar is nota _ makeover as the gap between recent phenomenon and it has _ university and competitive exam, slipped tounfathomable depths paper has led to unbridled over the years. The slide begins mushrooming of substandard swith school 'coaching institute in the name of Board examinations and is professional training. "The glaring at the university level, entire exam process should be where there isa growing tendstudent centric, Ithas unfortuency tohold examinations withnately become more friendly to out bothering to teach ina bid to outsourcing agencies and they streamline the perennially scem to be on dictating terms derailed examinations. with no direct accountability." Social analyst Prof NK Choudhe added.