Patna: More than 1,000 high school students in eastern India have been expelled for cheating on pressure-packed 10th grade examinations this week, education authorities said Friday.
In the past three days, authorities have expelled more than a thousand students for using unfair means in the examination. At many places, the authorities even asked the students to enter the examination halls by taking off shoes and parting with their cell phones.
The incident has gotten widespread attention after Indian television footage showed parents and friends of students scaling the outer walls of school buildings to pass cheat sheets to students taking exams inside.
Teachers and state education department officials supervising the examination caught hundreds of students who had smuggled in text books or scraps of paper to be used for cheating.
“It’s virtually impossible to conduct fair examinations without the cooperation of parents,” said P.K. Shahi, Bihar’s education minister. He said it was not possible, however, to monitor the 6 million parents and others who accompany the students to examination centres.
State authorities have posted police at all schools where examinations were being held, “but we can’t use force to drive away the parents,” he said.
Tiwari said students caught cheating could be barred from taking the exam for up to three years, ordered to pay a fine or even sent to jail.
Cheating seems to be particularly widespread in Bihar, although there have been no reports of anyone being sent to jail for the offence.
The weeklong examination began on March 17, at 1,217 centres across the state where more than 1.4 million students are taking part this time — the highest number so far.
The ruling Janata Dal (United) in the state which was voted back to power over its twin promises of good governance and law and order has been left ashamed at the image of guardians clambering up the walls of the examination centres to help their wards.
A visibly embarrassed state government headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar has now appealed to parents to avoid cheating in the interest of students’ career.
“ ... By encouraging cheating in the examination, they are only spoiling the promising career of their children. The children clearing the test with the use of unfair means will never feel morally confident in life,” Kumar said in his Facebook post on Friday. He said only the students with good merit could build a healthy society.
The appeal by the chief minister is being viewed as an urgent effort by the government to limit the damage caused by the remark of education minister PK Shahi on Thursday. Shahi had said it was nearly impossible for the government to curb copying without the support of society.
“Just imagine the situation. Over 1.4 million students are taking examination this time, and if we calculate average four-five persons helping them use unfair means, this number comes to a massive six-seven million. Can the government alone conduct fair examination in such a situation?” he said.
At an examination centre in Vaishali district, crowds of guardians were seen scaling window-roofs of the multi-storied school building and supplying chits to the examinees, forcing the authorities to remove the centre’s superintendent. Authorities have also filed cases against some 1,000 unknown persons for trying to help examinees.
Copying remains a matter of serious concern in Bihar and despite various measures initiated by the authorities to curb cheating, it goes uncontrolled.
Further, the authorities are conducting videography of the centres and also conducting surprise checking for fair examination, but it has not helped much since examinations began on March 17.
“At presently, we are conducting videography of the centres and deployed adequate police to curb malpractices, but they are not helping us much. We are now planning to install CCTV cameras at the centres,” Bihar State Examination Board secretary Sriniwas Chandra Tiwari said.
Officials say irregular classes, poor teaching and shortage of quality teachers in schools have apparently forced students to take to various kinds of copying at the examination centres. The ruling government has been widely accused of recruiting more than 400,000 contractual teachers in schools at low pay without checking their proficiency. In the past two years, more than 1,25,000 teachers have failed eligibility test, raising a big question mark over the government’s hiring policy for teachers. Reports said all these teachers were appointed merely on the basis of their degrees and markssheets without making them appear for tests to check their capability.
“I am really shocked at the ongoing trend of cheating openly at examination centres, but the students alone can’t be blamed for this menace. Schools and government too are equality responsible for this since they are not serious about imparting good teaching,” said Dinkar Lal Sah, a man from Purnia district whose grandson is taking the exams this time.
Many teachers are also accused of having clandestine deals with parents of weak students to help them clear the examination. “Student-guardian-teachers nexus is an open secret. While I was the divisional commissioner in Bihar, I had arrested 30-40 teachers in Munger for taking bribes from students to help them pass the examination,” said a former chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board wishing not to be named.
