You
won’t imagine a duller place than an examination centre
for high school students, and it is not a newsworthy spot either. But if it is in Bihar, India, it may break
these rules. The world discovered what an
action-packed location a school building was on 19th March 2015, in the
state’s Vaishali District, being a venue for the ongoing class 10 matriculation
examinations. The building’s photo of that date splashed
across newspapers spoke vividly, more than the accompanying report.
Did
you see that picture all over print media, national and international, and in
the internet – a rustic unplastered brick wall
of a four-storey building, with scores of men perched
on its external sun-shades and slab-projections at different levels, many of
them looking in through windows? They
were handing in helpful cheat-sheets to students assembled inside the school
building to write exams – their friends or relatives. Some of the men were in the act of climbing their
way up the wall to deliver. Ropes tied
to many windows on that wall hung down to the ground to help climbers. The
sight was amusing, and saddening too.
Boys
and girls have a huge stake in the marks they score in school final
examination, because for some who will not study further that will be their
educational identity for ever and for those who desire admission to colleges
for higher studies these marks give them a push – and are valued more by those
who won’t be questioned to check if their mark sheets match their wit. Now, if some of them writing those exams copy
answers from cheat sheets and could get away with that, why would other students
not do it too? After all no student likes to score less marks than any other –
surely not less than those who sit next, cheat and smile.
So
don’t just blame all the students who copied.
Blame the examination supervisors who turned a blind eye. But maybe they were forced to look the other
way by a long entrenched copy culture in those areas, and they prefer to stay
healthy and painless than intervene. It is also like chaotic traffic on a busy
road intersection. The fault of the
scene should lie on the traffic police, not on many helpless road users. If some drivers flout traffic regulations but
are not booked, many others would do the same thing wanting to get out and keep
going.
I
think the Bihar photo shows in a way a malady afflicting many parts of India,
more in that state. That is, though the
country has plenty of peaceful, industrious and intelligent citizens its rulers
and policy makers are self-centered, greedy and visionless – to the point of even
derailing the people for private good. If India is shining in patches it is in spite
of its governments and not because of them.
Mass
copying in exams is the least of dare devil acts or criminal deeds anyone may
do, especially at high school age. It
needs no fine technology or colossal effort from an administration to stop it. It just requires a serious intent not to let
the malpractice go on. Then why are
remedial measures not seen and why is Bihar making big news of this kind? If you think of a plausible explanation like
this many might agree with you: If an administration adopts unclean and
unworthy practices that largely go unchecked, then the prospering group at the
helm might allow some privileges to the poor bystanders and onlookers. These privileges are like gifts given by the
left hand. They could cool the common
people who may otherwise be angry with the administration for what it does, and
could also blunt people’s intent, if any, to protest against many things in the
public sphere. And the end result could
be unspoken mutual forgiving. But then, with more media glare falling on the free and merry copying, the background
rules of live and let live could see changes in the future.
Tens
of thousands of Indians – the peaceful, industrious and intelligent ones – who had
a chance to grow wings have gone out to other countries where they are allowed
to fly high and display their talent and prowess. Their less fortunate brothers and sisters in
some parts of India don’t even have a chance to grow wings, leave alone flap
and look to fly. That is something you
cannot capture on camera.
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