In Bihar, 300 people were recently arrested for cheating in exams. Many of them are parents of the students sitting the exams.
The Hindustan Times has a picture of people scaling up a 4-storey wall to throw paper-airplanes carrying answers to exam papers. However, the chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board said that cheating has not happened within the exam halls. He claims that it happens from the outside. Fines have been imposed, students have been failed or expelled and exams have been cancelled as a result of the publicity around such cheating experiences.
People live in a society where passing exams is seen to be the make-or-break point to their need to live in poverty. After all, these are the leaving school exams, and consequently, the last chance the students have to show that they have gained some value out of their schooling.
Cheating has apparently become more rampant since the state government offered cash rewards to lower-caste students who were able to answer about half the questions on their tests. Attempts to chase away family members lurking outside test centres failed, as mobs threw stones at the law-enforcement agents.
What do you think of such a culture? Has something gone wrong? Or is this fine? How can it be made right if it has gone wrong?
The Education Board has tried to counsel parents and students against cheating, while many parents blame the government and the teachers for being indifferent and uncaring.
Can such a culture change for the better? How?
No comments:
Post a Comment