The first set of K-CET exams were conducted on July 30th as scheduled by the Karnataka government. The Common Entrance Test has been the centre of a heated debate regarding whether or not it should have been conducted amid a pandemic.
Netizens and students alike have begun posting images 'supposedly' from the K-CET exams conducted today, claiming that there was no social distancing maintained. The problem arose when some called it out as images from the Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical entrance exam conducted in Kerala.
The Claim
Karnataka's CET exam so far has been resisted by students across the state for the reason that it put students at risk. To prove the point, many students and netizens have been sharing images from different centres where the exam was conducted to show that the government had ignored social distancing.
The images have been going viral on Twitter as more people share it as proof criticising authorities about the situation and how they've handled. Moreover, Deputy CM Ashwathnarayan had visited the exam centres to see that social distancing was maintained.
As the pictures went viral, there was a certain section that claimed that the photos shared are that of the KEAM entrance exam conducted in Kerala earlier on 16th July. The debate begins there.
Verifying the claims
These pictures, which are still being shared online, have produced a cause of doubt. One of the reasons why is because in the second picture there is a distinctive arch that has made one doubt whether it's similar to that of the St. Mary's Higher Secondary School, Pattom in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
To verify the claim, we conducted a reverse image search on Google images. When we did that after uploading the image, the result showed up that the possible related search could be- 'keam entrance 2020 Trivandrum'. Upon following the search results we saw other images with the same distinctive arch, that was captured in a different angle.
We were further led to an article by The New Indian Express, which uses these two images on 17th July to discuss how social distancing was not followed at the centre.
While these particular images have been inaccurately circulated as visuals from the K-CET exam centres, there are other images that have been confirmed from centres around the state.
The false images, however, shouldn't detract from the truth of those centres that did ignore social distancing.
