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Is the system encouraging students to copy?

Should the debate on copying, triggered by photographs of people scrambling up the walls of a Bihar school to help students taking an exam inside, be confined only to the state? Is it just easy stereotyping or reflective of a deeper nationwide crisis? Is copying a symptom or the disease itself? Yogesh Pawar speaks to a cross-section of experts for answers to the troubling questions

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Family members of students scale the wall of a school in Vaishali, Bihar, to pass chits to them during an exam on March 19, 2015. The incident led to a huge outcry and reignited debates over the Indian education system
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As the nation cringed – and raged – at images of scores of people scaling the walls of a four-storey exam centre in Mahnar, in Bihar's Vaishali district, to pass chits to girls appearing for the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) exam, an unlikely victim was a senior technocrat in the Maharashtra government. The Bihari babu, known for his sharp mind in tackling complex civic-infrastructure issues, was meeting colleagues when the reports went viral last weekend. "It hurt to the quick, when a colleague jokingly asked if I'd also copied to reach where I have," said the IIT gold medallist, still bristling. "Instead of stopping him, another colleague laughed and joined in suggesting India's mess was because of the huge presence of copycat Biharis in the IAS."

But the senior officer, who requested anonymity, said his colleagues were only taking their cue from "the holier-than-thou, borderline racist, media coverage of the issue".

In a ripple effect of sorts, the images from Mahnar led to reports of mass copying in school exams across Bihar, as well as debates on the state of education in Bihar and the rest of the country, of copying being the symptom rather than the disease, of how easy it was to manipulate the system. And also of the many jibes – such as those the officer was subjected to.

"Instead of raising questions about deep-rooted problems in our education system and the social factors compounding them, news reports revelled in tongue-in-cheek potshots at India (international media) or 'Bihar, the basket case' (national/regional media). It won't be surprising if several educated elite will use this as a handle against north Indians in general and Biharis in particular, playing into the Shiv Sena/MNS' 'outsiders' narrative," the anguished officer added.

Matric-marriage matrix

Empathising with the officer, professor at TISS' School for Education Dr Disha Nawani said, "Though Bihar's much maligned, I disagree with reactions on social media which border on glee, saying it happens only in Bihar and not elsewhere in India. We need to look at social factors like caste and poverty on the ground which end up magnifying the problem in many parts of not only rural India, but also newly-urbanising towns and cities."

Vaishali-based activist Bisweshwar Paswan of the Grameen Bal Vikas Sanstha agreed. Adding perspective to the debate triggered by the photograph of the girls' school, he said literacy rates in Bihar were still the lowest in the country. "For over 80 per cent of the rural population, marrying off a daughter is one of the most pressing concerns. As aspirations grow, most grooms look for at least a matric pass to marry. This is the reason you see the flurry of activity among girls to copy."

Families, he added, could go to any extent to help daughters pass with a first class, especially since the government offers Rs 10,000 in scholarship to all girls who do. "Since this is seen as a a 'noble cause', neighbours, friends and family gather at exam centres to chase away authorities and police, even raining stones on them if prevented from helping their wards in copying."

According to him, teachers, officials and members of vigilance squads often sympathised with the local situation or were 'prevailed upon' by the family members of the girls. "Given how poorly teachers are paid and how many months they go without pay, it often takes as less as Rs 100 to make them look away," he laughed.

Goons and guns

While that's the plight of 659,000 girl students appearing for the Class 10 boards this year, the 767,000 boys don't have it easy either. In fact, given the huge stranglehold of caste, nepotism and corruption, it can be worse. "As much as one wants to deny it, stereotypes of the Bihari goon who keeps a loaded revolver on the desk to copy while the quaking invigilator can only look on helplessly can't be wished away," admits Jitendra Sharma, a school principal from Vaishali. "Lawlessness has chased away private enterprise (which would have to pay 'protection money' to multiple gangs), and a government job (even contractual teachers) means greasing palms and/or knowing someone really high up. In fact, in several areas of Bihar, the police too are scared to move about freely and gangs with political affiliations have a free run fighting pitched turf battles amongst themselves."

The only alternative left for those who want to escape this drudgery, according to Sharma, is scoring well in studies, moving to Delhi and maybe getting into the civil services. "Why else do you think that there are so many IAS officers from here? Those who fail, live by the bullet hoping to legitimise with a toe-hold in politics. In the second instance, a bullet can often get to you before a political chair does."

Suo motu cognisance of media reports on the on the mass-cheating by a division bench of Chief Justice L Narasimha Reddy and Justice Vikash Jain of the Patna High Court has put pressure on the administration to show that it is taking action on the issue. Following the court rap, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called a meeting of senior officials in the home and education department, as well as director general of police P.K. Thakur.

Education Minister P.K. Shahi, who'd said that it was "impossible to have exams in Bihar without copying" after the media reports went viral, was present at the meeting. Though reportedly chided by the Chief Minister for his stand, he didn't seem too keen to change it. "Years of decay can't be wished away just like that."

In a strange warped way, Shahi may be right. In 1993, the pass percentage was 73.5; three years later, when the court cracked down on copying, it fell to 52 per cent.

Beyond Bihar

In February 2006, the media converged in Navapur in Maharashtra's Nandurbar district to cover the outbreak of bird flu (which saw even railway trains stopped from halting) and was witness to exactly the same kind of mass copying seen in Mahnar. This led to similar outrage because the visuals were there for all to see. Pratap Mukne, a local activist, says the mass copying is back with the media shifting attention.

"There was extra vigilance for a year or two, and slowly things crawled back to the way they were. This year, if anyone had captured images of the Class 10 board exams, they would have made the Bihar pictures look like a picnic."

Many like sociologist Mukul Joshi feel that corruption in the exam system in India has a big part to play. "The rich bribe their way to examination success, with a whole subset of youth acting as brokers between them and avaricious exam administrators. Then are those infamous locally – for their powerful links – who invigilators won't touch. With the rich and powerful getting their way, it is often the poorest students who end up indulging in copying."

According to him, this is true not only in Bihar, which is easy to stereotype, but across the country.

"India's education system is in deep crisis," he said. "There's cheating at every level. In school, teachers egg students to come for private tuitions, and those who don't are marked poorly. By the time one reaches the university, the rot is so much that it stinks to high heaven. Students pay bribes for admissions and good results, research students get professors to write dissertations for a fee. These professors who often publish plagiarised articles in bogus journals are then the role models."

TISS' Nawani also points out how the system often forces teachers to cheat. "Now that we have continuous evaluation, principals and higher-ups pull up the teacher who will have to face transfers, denial of increment or some such punishment if the scores don't keep improving. Instead of getting into trouble, teachers then simply manipulate to show that the kids are improving."

She cited an example of wealthy parents protesting with the principal of a tony Mumbai school about their child being given a C grade. "The principal called the teacher and rebuked her in front of the parents and the grinning child, making her change the grades."

Rote learning is not learning

Joshi feels a solution to this problem will not be found till we ask the right questions. "The Smriti Iranis of the world need to ask why everyone is afraid of failing. Why are they failing? Isn't this a failure of the system and not the student? Only when people heading the HRD ministry ask these questions will we see change. As of now, we only see more damage than good being done as agendas are furthered."

Who better to talk about this than Professor Krishna Kumar, who heads the Central Institute of Education at Delhi University? The education expert, who headed NCERT for many years, admits that the blame lies more with the system than students. "Rote memorising of content has come to mean learning."

According to him, this is a malaise affecting not only India, but most parts of South Asia. "You can tell how old this problem is from the fact that it was the subject of a Rabindranath Tagore speech. He said, "The problem is not only of those who copy and pass, but also with those who mug up entire books and can regurgitate on command.' Tagore likened rote learners to Hanuman, who got the entire mountain when asked to fetch the Sanjeevani herb from there."

According to Kumar, copying is not the disease, but a symptom of how diseased our educational system has become. "The Indian education system is not about understanding and learning, but scoring well in exams. From day one, everyone is told that they have to do well in the exams or they will be left behind. This works wonderfully for the multi-crore coaching class business."

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 had proposed several changes to the syllabi to make it more about learning-without-burden. "While CBSE schools that implemented the changes have shown some marked improvement, large states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra continue to be apathetic about implementing the changes," he rued.

Anxiety, not education

For many, the onset of summer is marked by anxiety attacks in the morning, even though it may have been since they were done with schools and exams. "I often wake up by the end of February or the beginning of March worrying about where my hall-ticket is or which paper I am supposed to go for," Nawani confessed.

Psychiatrist Dr Pavan Sonar calls this the sign of seasonal affective anxiety. "We need to overhaul our educational system because instead of being fun, it becomes a source of stress for many. The fear of failure or failure itself can cause severe depression, and we see how the exam season and the results that follow see several suicide attempts and suicides too. While counselling and therapy can help at a curative and to an extent preventive level, it'll be best to proactively make changes in the education system so that it induces learning without stress." He points out how barbs from parents, teachers and friends only make things worse.

As far as barbs and their effects are concerned, the technocrat we began with should know best...

The American way

Students are marked on each essay, exam and course taken in each subject studied through their 13 years (grades K to 12); the grade point average (GPA) is calculated during high school.

All grades are internal and related to the general standard achieved at a particular school, which usually makes it difficult to compare standards in different schools and states. Students receive a report card at least twice a year (in some school districts it may be up to six times), which shows their grades in each subject they're studying.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland

In the compulsory state education system, assessment up to the age of 14 is usually carried out at periodic intervals against national curriculum levels. This is especially the case at the end of each Key Stage, at the ages of 7, 11 and 14, where students are statutorily assessed against these levels. The levels are applied to each of the compulsory subjects, and range from Level 1 to Level 8, with an additional band for 'Exceptional Performance'. The Department for Education states that students should be expected to reach a standard level at the end of each Key Stage.

Scotland

Standard grades are set for pupils aged 13–16, usually across eight subjects. There are three different levels of exam which students may sit as a Standard Grade, namely Credit, General and Foundation. Often, students are required to take two exams, depending on their ability. For example, a Credit student will usually have to sit a General exam as well, in case they fail the former; and a General student may be asked to sit both a General and a Foundation paper.

There are two numbered grades for each level, as well as two fail grades. Should Credit pupils fail their exam, results will drop to their General paper. For the final external exams, the percentage required for each grade is determined on a per-paper basis, usually to allow a certain percentage of people to pass. This allows for varying difficulty levels of papers.

As a rough guide, the top grade in each level requires 70-80% or more, and the second grade requires 50% or more, whereas below 50% is a fail.

Japan

Students have to take an entrance examination for junior high school, high school and university, if they change institutions. It is always the case in public schools and universities. University entrance exams (juken) are particularly hard and often referred to as "exam hell" (shiken jigoku). Students who fail the juken become 'rounin' a mocking term formerly used for masterless samurai. Preparatory schools called yobikou drill students for exams.

China

Both Hong Kong and China have long traditions of high-stakes examinations to select students for limited spots in higher levels of education or in higher-rated educational institutions. Use of public examinations as a selection tool in China is at least a thousand year old practice.
Some private schools do everything from kindergarten to university. Students only have to take an entrance exam/interview when they join the school, and are generally exempt afterwards. This is called the "elevator system", where once one has entered the institution, they automatically go to the next step until graduating from university. But this is the privilege of the super-rich only.

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