Parents, friends help Indian students cheat
Description
Images of Indian students blatantly cheating on school-leaving examinations under the noses of supervisors have gone viral, inviting ridicule on Twitter and exposing flaws in the much-maligned education system of an impoverished eastern state.
On Thursday, the Hindustan Times published a photo of dozens of men clambering up the wall of a four-storey test centre in Bihar state, perched on window ledges as they folded answer sheets into paper planes flown into classrooms.
“Should we shoot them?” asked Prashant Kumar Shahi, Bihar’s education minister, addressing a news conference after television news channels aired the incriminating photo and raked up the scandal.
“On average, four or five persons are helping each student use unfair means,” Mr Shahi said, adding it was impossible to curb cheating if parents encouraged their children.
Exams held by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) are viewed as make-or-break tests that could transform the lives of millions growing up in poverty.