More than 1,300 students have been expelled in Bihar for cheating in the Grade 12 examination being conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB).

All of them were expelled in the past six days of the examination as the authorities have tightened measures to curb use of unfair means in the exam at all costs. The authorities have also sacked 22 invigilators for allegedly promoting cheating in the examination which began on Tuesday last amid massive security arrangements.

As per an official report, a total of 1.26 million students are taking examinations this time at 1,274 centres across the state.

“Conducting cheat-free examinations are our top priority and we have initiated various measures to restore the lost glory of the examination board,” said chairman Anand Kishore said.

Looking determined on stopping exam malpractices, the authorities are showing just no respect towards the examinees in conducting their body searches by openly pulling their trousers down in public and pushing their hands inside their undergarments looking for bits of papers with answers

One such incident was reported from Uta middle school, Jehanabad, a central Bihar district. In the photographs that have gone viral in the social media, the authorities are seen searching undergarments of students before allowing them to enter into the examination hall. At many centres, BSEB chairman Anand Kishore himself was caught on camera frisking students right in the exam hall.

They are not sparing the girls students either. The girls too are forced to go through rigorous humiliating searches by policewomen, though in private. Such scenes are quite familiar at all almost exam centres in Bihar in a bid to curb malpractices in the exam at all costs, as per media reports.

“We appreciate government’s initiative to curb cheating in the exam but the way the school authorities have gone on nearly undressing the examinees in public is not fair. One holds no right to play with the dignity of poor students in the name of searching chits,” Rajiv Kumar Singh, a BJP leader, said.

 

Embarrassment

 

The state government has tightened security measures this time after taking lessons from the previous two successive incidents, which brought much embarrassment to the government.

The ruling Nitish Kumar government faced severe embarrassment last year when quite many incompetent students topped the merit chart of Class 12 examinations at the cost of the genuine and meritorious students. The scandal came to light after the media interviewed arts top scorer Ruby Rai.

During the interview, Ruby couldn’t properly pronounce her subject Political Science and spelt it as “Prodikal Science” which ultimately led to a government inquiry, resulting in arrest of many bigwigs, such as former BSEB chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad, his wife Usha Sinha, a senior Janata Dal United leader and principal of a government college, and many other current and former BSEB officials.

Prior to that, a visual had gone viral, dealing a further blow to the image of the state. The video showed the guardians clambering up the walls of an exam centre in Bihar and supplying chits to their children appearing at the matriculation exam

source : gulfnews