advertisement
Consider the following headlines:
The general engagement with the Bihar topper scam, whether mainstream media’s or the public’s, has been an exercise in smug mockery. Bihar has always been a bit of a punchline for the urban, cosmopolitan elites and this story has been treated as more fodder for entertainment.
Another, more damaging reaction has been the knee-jerk punitive sort. Ruby Rai, the Humanities ‘topper’ in question, was arrested by a special task force after she appeared for a re-test at the Bihar School Examination Board and failed. Rai, a minor, was then sent to judicial custody. Her life since then has been a series of court appearances, re-examinations, and media interviews.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we’ll let Satish Acharya’s cartoon make our point for us:
This photo, capturing the culture of widespread cheating in exams in Bihar, was shared virally on social media in March last year. So were anecdotes of students slipping in 100 rupee notes into their answer sheets or devising a complicated system of codes to let the examiner know that a certain paper was to be favorably checked. While it gave rise to much mirth everywhere, state and school authorities, aside from making token noises of disapproval, remained largely unmoved.
Former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian, who headed the committee which was entrusted with preparing a new education policy for India, finds in his report that there is:
The 200-page report goes on to make 90 suggestions, like compulsory quality audit of all higher education institutions every three years and allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in the country in collaboration with Indian institutions, to enact reforms in the educational infrastructure of places like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
What the HRD Ministry intends to do with the report’s findings remains to be seen. The ball is in your court, Miss Irani.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)