Students alone not responsible for cheating in examinations: Study

The study was conducted in the background of Uttar Pradesh government pulling out all stops in 2018 to stop cheating in board examinations. However, the inaction on other aspects of school education reportedly resulted in failure over a million students of class 10 and 12 in 2019 board examinations.

Contrary to the popular trend of blaming students for cheating in examinations, a study published in the current issue of prestigious research journal – Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) – has claimed that the students alone are not responsible for cheating in board examinations. In addition to pedagogical, infrastructural and weather conditions, the requirement of a certificate for marriage was also found to be one of the reasons behind mass cheating in board examinations, argued the researchers.

"Viewing cheating as an individual problem, one related to poor ethics on the students' part, would be rather simplistic. This should be seen as reflective of a larger malaise that has an impact on students' educational worlds," concluded the research paper authored by Preeti Manani and Dinesh K. Yadav at the School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai. "While it is possible that there are a few students who may use unfair practices irrespective of the quality of education received, to say that the majority of children are ethically bankrupt may not be right," it added. The researchers have argued that the mere implementation of punitive measures would not produce desired results unless the factors responsible for low learning among pupils are addressed at policy level.

The researchers have highlighted several factors responsible for decreased learning among pupils which ultimately pushes them for cheating or mass copying in the examinations. According to the study the vacant teaching posts, non-availability of teachers due to their engagement in evaluation works, non-availability of subject teachers, lack of computer facilities with internet connections, and lack of infrastructure facilities adversely affect learning among students. The pupil-teacher-ratio (PTR) in Uttar Pradesh was found to be 88 which was more than double of the national average of 32. There has been no appointment of teachers between 2017 to 2019. Besides, the government's effort to re-engage retired teachers could not yield desired results. Furthermore, the decision of UP Board to match it's schedule of board examination with CBSE also adversely affected teaching as a significant number of students and teachers were reportedly involved in agriculture activities of the season and avoided schools.

In 2018, the UP government deployed all he measures including CCTV cameras, personal verification etc. to prevent cheating in examinations. The initiative was appreciated in 2018 but non-appearance of 6.52 lakh students and failure of 10.48 lakh students in 2019 in UP Board examinations have become a matter of great concern among academicians and researchers.