Students Who Cheat on Indian State Exams Should Not Agree to Be Quizzed on TV
Two students who scored at the top of their class were unable to answer basic questions about the material in a TV interview.
Are you a student who just cheated on your state exams and managed to score a really high grade without actually learning any of the material? Well, here’s a good tip for you: Don’t go on TV to talk about your success and then tell the host that political science is about cooking.
Those words of wisdom might seem too obvious, but it’s advice that 17-year-old Ruby Rai really could have used after she earned the top exam scores at her school in India’s Bihar state and then couldn’t answer basic questions about the material when she was interviewed on local TV after the fact.
Another student, Saurabh Shrestha, stumbled through a simple chemistry question. The taped interview, embedded below, went viral in India. They were interviewed in part to boast about their high test scores after officials thought they had launched a successful crackdown on cheaters.
Are you a student who just cheated on your state exams and managed to score a really high grade without actually learning any of the material? Well, here’s a good tip for you: Don’t go on TV to talk about your success and then tell the host that political science is about cooking.
Those words of wisdom might seem too obvious, but it’s advice that 17-year-old Ruby Rai really could have used after she earned the top exam scores at her school in India’s Bihar state and then couldn’t answer basic questions about the material when she was interviewed on local TV after the fact.
Another student, Saurabh Shrestha, stumbled through a simple chemistry question. The taped interview, embedded below, went viral in India. They were interviewed in part to boast about their high test scores after officials thought they had launched a successful crackdown on cheaters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyD0U9cUdvI
Rai and Shrestha are two of 14 students who will be retested this week amid growing concern that anyone who scored highly on the state tests somehow cheated their way there. Bihar is the same state where parents were photographed last year climbing over the walls of a school in order to pass their students answers through the windows.
There are now punishments ranging from fines to jail time to put an end to the deeply embedded culture of cheating there. Earlier this year, army recruits in Bihar were forced to take their exams in nothing but their underwear. Some of them still may have managed to cheat: One Indian website sells a bluetooth penis attachment that allows test-takers to communicate with the outside world through an accompanying ear-piece.
Photo credit: Screenshot
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