The picture above was recently in the news
and more prominently in the circles of social media enjoying its ephemeral
fame, prolific ridicule, widespread laughter and umpteen comments. Propped and
enlightened by the comments of people on the social media, leaders gave their
insightful views on how this “feature of society of Bihar” was bad and deeply
crept in. Even the rugged veterans of Bihar politics, who are supposed to be
deeply connected to the roots, made heartfelt appeals to the Bihari families to
not allow their wards to cheat. The Education Minister felt that this malaise
had grown so intractable that it couldn’t controlled by State alone. Former CM
Lalu Yadav proposed a novel solution of open book exams so that cheating can be
controlled. But I need to explain why this will not work.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
However, in this case, I think a few hundred more are needed to explain the
situation a little better. Since I spent my entire elementary and a bit of
secondary learning in the state primary and high schools of my village in Siwan
district of Bihar, I have witnessed the preparation of my seniors during state board
exams. Different subject experts available in the village or in the vicinity
were hired on corresponding exam days to sit near the exam centre. Rest of the
family members or friends were there to take questions out to the subject
expert and after he solved the questions, they took the cheat-sheets back to
the candidates. I remember people inviting a venerable octogenarian Panditji of
the village on the day of Sanskrit exam who went there only after much
persuasion and a gift of silk dhoti. So, this hub-and-spoke model of knowledge supply
chain was effective only when there was a subject expert sitting at the hub.
Students sitting at the end of the spokes, who were used to be at the receiving
end of the sticks, not knowledge during their classes, will still be clueless
even if books are allowed in the exam.
It is amusing to see how the blame has been
shifted so quickly and easily on the society. In reality, the picture
represents the failure of our state in two specific realms. One is the quality
of education in state schools of primary and secondary education. Going by the
Annual Survey of Education Report 2014, around 86% of children 6-14 years of
age are enrolled in government schools. Since 2009, the percentage of Std. V
children who can read Std. II text in govt. schools has gone worse from over
56% to 41% in 2013 (comparative figure for private schools is 78%). Similar
secular decline has been observed for arithmetic skills. Also, the high
enrolment rates of 86% (that too is low in comparison to national levels) are
not to be proud of; the attendance rates hover around 50-60% despite provisions
of mid-day meals.
The quality of teaching in primary and
upper primary schools of government is even worse. Compiled from various
surveys, the teachers’ attendance rate in primary schools is around 83% and
less than 80% in upper primary schools. This is on top of 40% vacancies in
teaching personnel. Despite huge recruitment in recent years by Nitish govt.,
the qualification of teaching personnel has actually gone worse. Graduate
teachers form only 40% of primary school teachers. Subpar salary offered in ad-hoc
teaching schemes like Shiksha Mitra force teachers to engage in other
activities for livelihood thus making teaching a secondary activity. In such
scenario of state education, it is no wonder that students depend on cheating
to pass in exams.
The other larger issue which this picture
presents is of that of opportunity of livelihood. Bihar’s lagging economy and
ineffective law and order stayed for a long time to eventually close its doors
for private enterprise in the state. Agricultural economy has largely remained
a subsistence activity despite acreage under food grains over 90%. According to
the State Economic Survey 2014-15, no. of factories and workers employed,
despite recent increases in last few years, have remained one of the lowest
among all Indian states. Despite having immense potential for food processing,
new private enterprises have been able to provide employment to only 6000
people in the sector during Dec 2013 to Dec 2014. Of the 28 sugar mills in the
state, 18 are either sick or closed. In the last two decades, the major portion
of employment offered was only by the State which obviously required minimum
educational qualifications. Other areas of sports, art, drama and music which
do not put much emphasis on educational “certifications” have not offered any
avenues of livelihood generation. These conditions have instilled the belief,
or rather fear, in people that educational “certifications” are a must for an
employment opportunity, however bleak it may be. Such socio-economic conditions
have led people to emigrate for employment search. And this emigration has been
prominent not just in unskilled category but also in highly skilled
professionals.
Hence, the solutions offered for the
malaise represented by the viral picture are incorrectly aimed. Making
invigilation strict or introducing open book exams or appealing to parents to
instil ethics in their children are measures which are either misplaced or
intentionally used to avoid blame. This is not difficult to understand when
another picture of an examination centre of a CBSE or ICSE affiliated school is
juxtaposed for comparison.
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ps
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