All set to re-conduct MDCAT tomorrow

PESHAWAR: All is set to re-conduct the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) tomorrow (November 26) as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has taken precautions to prevent possible cheating during the examination or leaking of the question paper.
The commissioners and deputy commissioners will play a major role in maintaining order in and outside the examination centres.
The Khyber Medical University (KMU) is re-conducting the MDCAT with the assistance of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department and the police force.
When contacted, KMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Ziaul Haq told The News that they had done whatever was humanly possible to conduct the test in a peaceful environment.
“We have taken all possible measures to conduct the test in a transparent manner. We assigned the task of drafting and printing the question paper to our three women professors, who worked wholeheartedly for more than a month to accomplish this goal,” Dr Ziaul Haq said.
The vice-chancellor said that no staff member, including him, entered the room where the three professors prepared the question paper.
“We purchased three new laptops without internet connection along with printers to print the question paper in the same room. The doors would open with face recognition while the Special Branch officials were deployed outside the room,” he said.
Dr Ziaul Haq said question papers would be dispatched to the remote stations jointly by the KMU faculty members and assistant commissioner concerned.
He said they had put four locks to each box containing the question papers to be transported to other cities.
“The papers are printed and placed in boxes. We have put four locks to each box and called the assistant commissioners of their respective places who also put their own locks. The assistant commissioners will travel with our faculty members and will unlock the boxes together,” the vice-chancellor said.
He said the candidates would enter the examination centres after biometric verification and proper search.
The candidates have been asked not to carry any extra item except the cards issued to them. The candidates were advised not to bring ballpoints and clipboards to the examination centres. He said KMU would provide them all the material needed for the examination.
The government cancelled and announced plans to re-conduct the entrance test after a scam was unearthed by the Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA).
The ETEA recovered Bluetooth devices from 219 students during the entrance test and delivered them to the police.
According to the ETEA officials, they had written to the provincial police to provide them jammers so that nobody could use electronic devices during the test.
They said the police didn’t provide them with jammers at that time. The officials said had they arranged the jammers, it would have avoided such a major exercise and saved precious time and resources.
The police have now announced it will install jammers outside the examination centres.
Also, cell-phone service will remain suspended in the cities where the MDCAT is being held.
The ETEA traced the ones behind the scam, including the ringleader.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry had ordered an investigation through the Joint Investigation Team (JIT). However, nobody was informed about its outcome.
The KP government disqualified the 219 candidates for two consecutive years from appearing in the MDCAT.
The KMU and the government are worried about the possible use of cheating.
They might not face any serious problem this time as ETEA has made their job easier by busting the gang involved in cheating.