Cheater's Paradise

I recently administered exams here in Hyderabad, and it became clear that cheating is a way of life in my school and, from what I hear, in many Indian schools. I’m quite accustomed to being the hawking watch-dog during 10th grade exams or while proctoring SATs, and I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on the techniques often employed by desperate teens. I see the warning signs—the shifty eyes, the restless hands, the slightly irregular tilt of the head.

On the first day of exams, I walked into the room and my cheat odometer practically blew a fuse. The students weren’t cheating at that point, of course, but the potential for cheating was remarkable. One student from class 6 and one from class 7 sat at one desk. Superficially, this seems like a good idea as both students are taking different tests. However, the reality is that the older student just last year completed a similar test and can thus easily help the other student. And vice versa, even the younger student might help the older student if he/she was better at Hindi or Sanskrit. With 45 students in each classroom, it is almost impossible to catch a student who slyly points to an answer on his neighbor’s page.

Then, of course, there are those lovely desks that have the shelf built-in underneath. Although I suppose I could have looked into every student’s desk for a cheat-sheet before the exam, I ultimately concluded it would give students more ideas. Alarm bells started ringing even louder when I saw all of the students whipping out clipboards. First of all, attaching a cheat-sheet to a clipboard is pretty easy, and secondly, clipboards are tiltable—perfect for classmates sitting behind you. Then, oh joy, there are the pencil boxes that every student owns. These pencil boxes are opened, closed, and shared during the test. Perfect places for a little card of answers? You betcha.

I also found it interesting that the students kept their exam questions. I asked a teacher about this, and she said that each teacher writes slightly different questions each year, so it isn’t a problem. My response? It’s a national curriculum used year after year. How different could the questions be??

Needless to say, I caught quite a few students attempting to cheat. The first two I nabbed writing Sanskrit answers on their hands, and I brought them down to their teacher for remonstration. What did the teacher do after I had explained the situation? Chuckled and shook her head. She wasn’t going to do anything. Happily, another teacher was on the scene and gave the students a royal tongue-lashing. But that was the extent of the consequences.

One of the most difficult aspects of my exam week was that I was not allowed to proctor my own tests. Thus, when I began correcting my classes’ exams, I soon discovered that not all of the teachers were as vigilant as I. But it was hard to prove it until I found two tests that were identical; even the letters to their brothers were exactly the same. So I righteously stomped off to the teacher who was in charge of exams, to ask her about the school’s policy regarding the matter. She looked at the papers, smiled, and then told me to give them both a warning. "Tell them that if it happens again, it will be 10 points off." My stomach churned. "You mean give them the exact same, high grade?" It was reaffirmed. Perhaps I took it too personally, but I seriously felt ill. "Should I report the matter to the principal?" "No." I didn’t even bother mentioning to her that this "first case" of cheating would occur year after year if there was no uniform documentation. And a warning is worth the risk if failing is the other option.

I ended up writing to my exchange partner in Vermont and asking her advice. She gave a much more reasonable response, to my relief, and I penalized both students in the end.
Now I am known by the teachers for my ability to catch students cheating. Even the stone-faced principal poked fun at me during a presentation I made this week

My impression is that many of the teachers are accomplices to cheaters in order to avoid confrontations with disgruntled parents. I’m now calling it the "Don’t show, and I won’t look" policy. Teachers quietly look the other way while students "do what they need to do." And I am left asking, what is the point of this educational system???