Patna: Cheating in examinations has been nothing new to north Indian state of Bihar — the change being it has now assumed a new dimension. Previously, students would stealthily carry chits into the examination halls, concealing them inside their pockets, under the shirt collars, inside the socks or shoes and even scribble some key points on the reverse sides of their garments, but today they seem to believe cheating is their “birthright”!
The issue triggered a serious debate in society after visuals of mass copying at the just-concluded grade 10 Board examination showing parents and relatives climbing up the walls of the multi-storey school building in Bihar and openly handing chits to the students went viral in the social media.
The visual may not depict the image of the entire state as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claims, but it has earned widespread outrage, shame and ridicule.
Some may be tempted to instantly link it to the growing ‘indiscipline’ in the new generation of students and their bad conduct but the image also abundantly exposes the rot in the system of present-day governance where power seems to be the ultimate goal of leaders.
As such, no government in the state has looked sincere to enforce discipline on the campus and improve the education system; instead they have worked with the prime motive to create various vote-banks to serve their own ends. The result was the shocking visual at the examination centre.
Report ignored
The general masses expected a lot when Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar came to power in November 2005, ending 15 years of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) rule which was likened to the proverbial “Jungle Rule”.
True to their expectations, Kumar formed a commission headed by former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey on the Common School System with the objective to provide all the right to equal education. Later, Dubey submitted his recommendations to the government but it was dumped for reasons best known to it.
As per the latest official report, some 300,000 children are still out of school.
The government’s policy to start midday meal in schools, give free uniforms to the students and also distribute cycles among them have only destroyed the already-choked education system, feel experts.
“The government has not been serious towards lifting the quality of education in schools. Today, most of the students come to school with the sole purpose of geting free food, uniforms and cycles. Education has not been the priority for them (students) or for the government,” explained educationist Narendra Mohan Jha.
He says the students normally bunk classes after eating free meals since most of the around 400,000 teachers appointed by the Nitish Kumar government on a contractual basis are not fit for teaching. They were appointed without getting them to pass tests or testing their abilities for teaching.
The seriousness of the overall situation is underlined by the fact that 25 per cent of the contractual teachers appointed by the Nitish Kumar government later failed the competency test conducted by the state government to test their teaching abilities following large-scale complaints about their poor teaching standard.
As of now, the Nitish Kumar government lacks the courage to curb cheating since state elections are barely a few months away.
The JD-U headed by Kumar had suffered serious electoral setbacks in last year’s Lok Sabha polls when it could win barely two seats out of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats. The ruling regime does not want to annoy the masses in the coming polls.
Bad governance
Education Minister Prashant Kumar Shahi has an instant answer for this. “Why this hullabaloo over cheating? No competitive or academic examination in the country is free from cheating,” said the minister, adding there had been reports of cheating even in the prestigious examination for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and medical entrance exams. “Cheating requires a larger debate,” he says.
The previous regime has done no good to the education system either. In the 1970s, former chief minister Karpoori Thakur had done away with the compulsory learning of English as a subject from the matriculation examination and made it compulsory to work in Hindi in the offices of the Bihar government. The students lost the opportunity to learn an international language which is now a must to get a good job.
Failed experiment
His disciple Lalu Prasad did even more harm to the state education during his term as the chief minister of Bihar. His prime focus was on opening “charwaha vidyalayas” (schools for cattle grazers). In line with his idea, some 113 “charwaha vidyalaya” were opened across the state in the early 90s but they failed due to lack of infrastructure and teaching staff.
Prasad later got his biography included in the syllabus for grade eight in government schools. It was removed when his arch-rival Kumar came to power in 2005. Ironically, Kumar has now joined hands with RJD chief Prasad and his government survives with RJD support.
1,828 students expelled from exam
Cheating may have earned a very bad name for the state but it also earned good revenue to Bihar by way of collection of fine from students and guardians caught involved in malpractices.
Authority said they collected around Rs 2.5 million as a fine ranging between Rs 1000 to Rs 10,000 from about one thousand examinees, parents and relatives arrested by the police during the anti-cheating drives at the examination centres during the week-long matriculation examination.
As per an official report, a total of 1,828 students were expelled from examination after being caught in cheating. Similarly, around 1,000 guardians and relatives were arrested for aiding malpractices. Those who paid the fine were released while those who could not were sent to jail. “But on payment of fine, they too will be released. They have not been involved in heinous crimes like murder or robbery, and hence can’t be treated that way,” said state’s additional director general of police Gupteshwar Pandey.
The drive picked up momentum after the Patna High Court and the State Human Rights Commission took a serious note of the mass-copying in the examination and directed the state government to crack down on cheating.
More than 1.4 million students appeared at the matriculation examination at total 1,217 centres this time. The weeklong exam which began on March 17 concluded on March 24.
However, thanks to alertness by the school administration, the life of an examinee could be saved. Anti-cheating squads had locked the examinee identified as Manoj Kumar in one of the school rooms after being caught for cheating at Rai Birendra College examination centre in Vaishali district on the last day of the exam. In the meantime, he tried to hang himself with a rope from ceiling fan when an invigilator chanced to see him and raised an alarm. Thus, his life could be saved. He was later let off by the police on payment of fine.
