Kerala’s polytechnic diploma examinations continued without disruption after a technical failure in the State Board of Technical Education portal forced authorities to email question papers to institutions shortly before the tests, Higher Education Minister Roji M John told the state assembly on Wednesday.
The portal developed technical problems on October 14. The issue was reported immediately to the National Informatics Centre, but it was not resolved in time for the normal question-paper distribution process.
Under the regular system, question papers are uploaded to the portal and examination centres download them one hour before the start of each test. After the disruption, the papers were sent securely to the official email addresses of institutions 30 minutes before the examinations began.
John said the email-based fallback system had existed for years and had also been used during similar portal disruptions in 2019, 2022 and April 2026. Question papers for examinations conducted under the old scheme continue to be sent by mail, he said.
The minister told the assembly that neither the Department of Technical Education nor the government had received complaints from students or heads of institutions about the distribution process. The statement did not identify the technical cause of the portal failure or specify how long it took the National Informatics Centre to respond.
The episode highlights the operational dependence of statewide examinations on a central digital portal, while also showing how an alternative communication channel was used to prevent the disruption from affecting scheduled tests. Directives have been issued to take steps to resolve similar technical problems promptly in future, according to the minister.
