An Indian college apologized for asking students to wear cardboard boxes over their heads

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Photos of the students wearing the boxes went viral.

• A college in southwest India apologized after photos showing students wearing cardboard boxes over their heads during an exam went viral.
• The private Bhagat Pre-University College in Haveri, Karnataka, asked students to wear the boxes for a chemistry exam. The idea was to stop them talking to each other during the exam.
• The college's administrator posted photos to social media, and state education authorities began investigating, according to local media reports.
• The administrator later apologized and said the college had asked students' consent for the scheme.

An Indian college apologized after asking students to wear cardboard boxes over their heads to prevent any exam cheating.

According to The Hindu newspaper, the private Bhagat Pre-University College in Haveri asked its students to wear modified cardboard boxes for a chemistry exam on Thursday.

The boxes had a crude square cut out of the front so the students could see, but the idea was to stop them talking to each other.

According to the report, the scheme was the brainchild of college administrator M.B. Satish. Photos of the students in cardboard boxes began circulating on social media. That was reportedly spotted by the state's deputy director for the department of pre-university education, S.C. Peerzade, who then halted the experiment.

Peerzade told The Hindu: "When I went to the college, most of the students had cartons over their heads. I sought an explanation from the administrator," he said. Peerzade added that the administrator had been inspired by a similar experiment at another college.

The administrator later apologized.

Satish told the BBC on Saturday that the college had sought students' consent. "There was no compulsion of any kind," he said. "You can see in the photograph that some students were not wearing it. Some who wore it removed it after 15 minutes, some after 20 minutes and we ourselves asked them to remove it after one hour."