What can change Bihar’s education system? Only chappals won’t

Millions of students entered the examination centres in Bihar wearing chappals as shoes and socks were banned this year to check rampant cheating.

The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), that conducts the Class 10 examinations, in a notification, had made it clear that students wearing shoes and socks will not be allowed to enter the examination centres.

While the Bihar government is coming up with stringent measures to check cheating, students came up with newer ideas to beat the government’s measures.

“Students had answers written on hands, thighs and other body parts and short answers on clipboards. Memory prompts hid under watches and undergarments. Some girls had written answers on the frills of their frocks or kurtas, while the boys hid small chits in the cover of their pens. We checked the students thoroughly before they entered the examination hall, we even made some students change their clothes. One girl broke all the limits! She had hid small slips in her hair),” said a government official on exam duty.

Anand Kishore, the Chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), said the students were expelled "for adopting unfair means" during Class 12 examinations. The chairman said that 25 fake students were also caught and FIRs were lodged against guardians for helping their wards to cheat in the examinations. He claimed the examinations this time were held in a fair manner and mass cheating in Bihar was a thing of the past. “It is not possible now,” He said.

A sound education system is the foundation of sustained growth in a country. But what if the education system is full of loopholes and does not provide any quality? Now the question arises who is responsible for all these unfair means. Students, parents or the system? Let’s see what people in Bihar have to say about this: “The strictness the government has shown on the days of examination, had they applied the same strictness in improving the education system of Bihar, our last year’s topper Rubi Rai would not have called ‘political science’ as ‘prodical science’!” said Ranjit Singh, a businessman.

“These days, the kids go to school tempted by midday meals or a bicycle, but there is no one who guide them with their studies. The teachers are also incompetent, most of them do not even know how to spell ‘Thursday’ or ‘February’ correctly. In such a situation, what is the future of our children, you can very well understand,” pointed out a senior citizen, who preferred to be anonymous.

“Teachers are being appointed after bribes are taken from them. It is a popular belief in Bihar now that if you can’t do anything professionally then you can become a teacher. People literally buy B. Ed degrees from Punjab, UP etc and somehow get the teacher’s job. The system is rotten even till its roots, how can you change it by just getting shoes and socks removed, how can you change it by these superficial steps,” asked a government official, who did not want to be named.

Nearly 1,000 students were penalised for cheating during the Class 12 exams that concluded on February 17. In 2017, the Class 12 Arts stream topper was a 42-year-old man, who was later arrested on charges of faking his age to take the exams.

In 2016, Ruby Rai had topped Class 12 examination conducted by the Bihar state Education Board in Humanities stream. She got into trouble after a sting by a TV channel, who had shown her giving ludicrous answers to elementary questions related to her subjects.

Saurabh Shreshtha, the science stream topper of Class 12 in 2016, was also caught on camera giving wrong answers to basic science questions.

(With inputs from IANS)