ROFL“sumthn's 2 b dun asap..othrwise w'll b producing fools&

[ye kya hora, yaron?]

Can't copy, so 95,000 COPS don’t turn up for exams in UP
Wednesday March 29 2006 00:00 IST

LUCKNOW: A+ or C-? Uttar Pradesh doesn't know how to grade this one after the recent board examinations. According to official figures, while around 8,000 students were caught using unfair means during the fortnight-long exercise in the state, more than 95,000 - almost 20 per cent of the examinees - dropped out fearing a crackdown on cheating.

And these are just the official figures, with sources informing that of the 44 lakh students appearing in the UP board examinations for Classes X and XII, 2006, around 30 lakh could have been involved in unfair means.

With a parallel industry worth crores springing up in the state just to help students clear the board exams, they stream in from neighbouring Nepal, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh to take the test here. But this time, life has been unfair - ask the two students caught taking MBBS exams wearing specially designed shirts in Lucknow last week.

“Around one lakh students decided not to take the examination and all because they were unable to cheat as they had planned. Districts like Aligarh and Kaushambhi alone have registered around 60,000 dropouts,” said Vasudev Yadav, Secretary, UP Secondary Education Board. “Most of these students were from adjoining states, especially places like Nepal and Bihar.”

Cheating is almost a parallel industry in the state, with contracts handed out and “education mafias” involved. Hundreds of FIRs are pending in police stations against invigilators, teachers, managers, and principals.

Ramraj Singh Yadav, SHO of Indergarh police station in district Kannauj – the constituency of Akhilesh Yadav, the Chief Minister's son - says rates are fixed: “Rs 1,000 to let a student cheat with his personal material; Rs 3,000 to provide him a special room where an invigilator dictates answers; and anything from Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 to give him special and individual attention.”

Recently, around 12 armed men barged into a school in the district and took away over 200 answer-sheets with them.

Again in Kannauj, when the District Inspector of Schools (DIOS) tried to video record mass copying at an examination centre, he and his stenographer were beaten up and had to be admitted in hospital with fractures.

At some places like Kushinagar, the DIOS recommended the National Security Act against two persons and a `Gangster Act' against one, without any action.

Earlier, on March 10, when he made it clear that no cheating would be allowed, examination centres in Kushinagar suddenly emptied of 3,000 students.

There was a much larger exodus in Aligarh after the sector magistrate caught many aged students appearing for the exams with fake birth certificates on March 23. Around 38,000 students left the examination in the middle in this district alone.

In Lucknow, where all the higher education officers are posted and the district administration has cracked down on cheating, R P Mishra, the president of the Lucknow Chapter of the UP Secondary Teachers' Association, says that “business” worth over Rs 50 lakh must have taken place.

On March 8, an team of this website's newspaper visiting examination centres in the state capital ran into examinees who couldn't recall the name of the school and the residential address mentioned in their admit cards. They were staying in rented rooms near the centres and were clearly fake students.

“Something must be done as early as possible, otherwise we will be producing an army of fools. The Education Department knows all about it but either they are have given in or are involved themselves,” said Mishra.

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