Relatives climb walls in India to help students cheat in exams

BIHAR, INDIA — Examinations for over a million Class 10 students started this Tuesday (March 17) in Bihar, India, and some relatives of the students have taken cheating to a new level.

At some of the over 1,100 examination centres, friends and relatives of Class 10 students in Sharsha and Khagaria districts were seen climbing walls of school buildings to drop cheat sheets for the examinees. Books and ‘chits’ flew in and out of the windows of the building, Hindustan Times reported.

And when school authorities stepped in, they had stones hurled at them, according to local media. A school teacher that The Hindu spoke to said: “If we try to stop unfair means at a centre, friends and family members of the examinees gang up to intimidate us.”

Board exams at the Class 10 and 12 levels are the first two major milestones in an Indian student’s pre-college academic career. The Class 10 board examinations end next Tuesday (March 24).
Some policemen and teachers were also allegedly bribed to pass chits to their wards, The Hindu reported.

A day after the photographs emerged across social media, State Education Minister P.K. Shahi admitted that enforcement will be a “big challenge”, and said: “I also want to ask people if it is not the responsibility of society as well to stop it?”

According to local media reports, over 1,000 examinees have been expelled for cheating and last month, dozens of year 12 students had been expelled and their parents detained in similar cases of cheating.

Sources: The Hindu, Hindustan Times, The Washington Post