Exam-related malpractices: A systemic failure...

This is a comprehensive article dealing with various aspects of examination-related malpractices in India. Since the article is long, it is being serialised in two parts. The first part is here. You can visit the second part, dealing with solutions to the problem, here: Exam-related malpractices: The solutions...

THE REALITIES OF THE INDIAN EXAMINATION SYSTEMS AND THE SOCIETY

Examination-related malpractices are almost universal. If students in a class are suddenly asked to take a test, and the teacher leaves the room, the laggards would likely try to look at their notes and copy from others. Consider a class in which a test is conducted by an outside agency and the questions are of a standard higher than that of the class. Also suppose that passing this test is crucial for upgrading the student to the next standard. In this case, students who have not prepared well will be more desperate to cheat. If possible, they will take outside help in cheating, bribe the invigilator to look away while they cheat, even try to know the questions before the test by whatever means. 

When we add other factors that incentivise cheating and reduce the chances of punishment, there is no reason why examination-related malpractices will not mushroom. This is what happens in India’s schools and colleges. 

Another type of examinations or tests are conducted for selection based on merit. In this category, we can include examinations for jobs in the public sector (government offices, nationalised banks and SBI, railways, autonomous institutions, public sector undertakings, defence, paramilitary and police forces, etc.) and for seats in prestigious professional institutions (medical colleges, IIMs, IIT and high-ranking engineering colleges, law colleges, etc.) In such examinations, the stakes are even higher than in educational examinations, and the reward for selection is immediate. 

That breeds a market for examination-related malpractices. When candidates are willing to adopt unethical and illegal means, and to pay a price for backdoor entry, malpractices become bigger and grow in sophistication. Since job-related examinations in India are conducted on a large scale, criminal syndicates develop, their operations sometimes spanning across many States. With their growing money and muscle power, they easily compromise the system, and a vicious circle of malpractices takes over the system in which high demand, high rates, and more sophistication and spread reinforce one another and take over the system.

So as not to lose focus, let us confine this discussion to professional and job-related examinations. The spirit of this discussion would, of course, also be relevant to the examinations conducted by universities and education boards.

Let us start with examining the main factors responsible for widespread malpractices in the Indian examination system.

MAJOR FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR MALPRACTICES IN INDIAN PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS 

The following are the major factors leading to a high level of examination-related malpractices in India: 

1. The enormous pull of a seat in a prestigious professional institution and a government job. 

Since there are a limited number of seats available in professional institutions, and only the high rankers get admission to prestigious institutions, they are in great demand. Moreover, a higher ranking ensures admission to government-aided institutions, in which the fees are much less as compared to private professional institutions. A degree from a good institution also guarantees a highly rewarding career (mostly in the engineering field) or a booming professional business (mostly in the fields of medicineand law). 

When it comes to jobs, though the private sector in India now offers many more jobs than the government sector, aspirants (and their families) are much more attracted towards jobs in the public sector. These jobs are considered secure and prestigious. The top ones such as the civil services, officer-level jobs in banks, railways and other public sector companies, officer-level entries into defence and paramilitary forces, and teaching jobs in higher education institutions, are considered highly prestigious, and serious candidates from colleges and universities compete for them in large numbers. 

Interestingly, lower-level public sector jobs attract a much higher number of aspirants as these are considered less demanding while coming with raw power, ‘connections’ and avenues for earning on the sly (such as jobs in the police and taxation fields). Due to this reason, in many north Indian states, villagers with huge land parcels that can get them crores of rupees in sale or government compensation (if their land is taken over for infrastructure projects) are prepared to spend lakhs of rupees to see their ward a peon in a government office or a police constable.

A huge number of students passing out of the general education stream every year, a large number of vacancies being advertised in one go by major public sector recruiters (as compared to smaller number of posts on offer from most private employers), lack of entrepreneurial culture in most parts of the country, lack of avenues for self-employment, and many factors that make traditional crafts and agriculture less attractive in the eyes of the youth… there are many other factors that contribute to a large number of candidates appearing for public sector jobs (especially lower-level jobs).

Due to the combination of pull and push factors, the competition for each seat becomes enormous, which leads to desperation among aspirants and drives many backbenchers to use unfair means.

2. Low deterrence for illegal short-cuts 

Because of high demand and low availability of seats, a market has evolved for providing a range of unethical and illegal services to candidates. Such commonly-adopted malpractices include stealing question papers and supplying answers, compromising computer systemsand processes used in examinations, changing answers and other data during or after an examination, changing result before its publication, and impersonation in the examination venue. 

Ordinary methods of cheating in examinations have, in recent years, been substituted by sophisticated, technology-aided means. In high-stake examinations, the use of duplicate fingerprint sheath and minute devices hidden in clothes for remote transmission of questions and answers is not uncommon. In some examinations, inter-State syndicates operate, which compromise the system at different levels (accessing examination papers and security passwords, hacking computers, planting devices in examination venues for real-time communication during the examination, bribing invigilators for facilitating cheating, and so on). They charge fee according to the ‘services’ provided. Some syndicates have been reported to be offering ‘package deals’ through examination venues and coaching centres.

In many cases, examination venues, coaching shops, successful candidates and professionals, and insiders of examination-conducting vendors are involved. 
While there is a big incentive for criminals and their associates in providing illegal ‘services’ to candidates, there is very little deterrence.

Normally, the internal monitoring mechanism of the examination-conducting body is weak. Routine deficiencies, indiscretions, even outright malpractices, are ignored for the fear of disrepute or the risk of an examination being cancelled. So, it is in the interest of the recruiting agencies and the government to ignore malpractices and suppress information on malpractices so that they do not escalate into a big public issue. When the stress is on letting things go, not only insiders but also peripheral ‘service’-providers go scot-free, and they get emboldened to indulge in similar activities in future. 

The loopholes in the legal system, and inefficiency and proneness of the policing system, further ensure that even when the culprits are caught, they escape with minor penalties, providing little deterrence against replicating their misdeeds.

3. Examinations not getting top priority in governments’ scheme of things 

The conduct of examinations is mostly considered a bureaucratic exercise, which is conducted mechanically, with the aim to somehow finish it without much problem. The examination and recruitment systems, thus, receive a very low priority. 

In the government system, priorities are often decided by political gains and exigencies. In a developing and vast country that India is, there are numerous issues that keep the top bureaucrats engaged, and, that is one reason for examinations being given a low priority in governance.  

The conduct of examinations without malpractices is a priority for the political leadership. Having relegated the job to some agency, politicians come to the scene when a major malpractice is exposed, which can have political consequences, and leave the scene when the dust is settled.

While top institutions run by the central government do not suffer from an insufficient budget, recruiting agencies of many States suffer also from budgetary constraints. So, whatever little they could have done towards conducting a fool-proof examination is not possible to be done, and examinations become that much more prone to malpractices. 

As we shall discuss later in detail, examinations cannot be seen as a stand-alone exercise; they should be seen as part of a larger human resource exercise. Unless a comprehensive view is taken of the human resources in the public sector, the system will remain infested with malaise even if examination loopholes are somehow plugged.  

4. Lack of a strong culture for zero tolerance. 

It requires another, more serious, discussion on whether even the most prestigious and empowered institutions conducting examinations and/ or selecting public functionariesselect really suitable candidates. The least they should strive for is a fool-proof examination, but there does not seem to be a ‘zero-tolerance’ culture in any of them. 

The testing agency takes pride if the examination is over with not much murmur. Leadership finds comfort in pushing the deficiencies under the carpet rather than admitting errors and working harder to tackle them. Even if the officials are keen to take remedial actions, they stop short of reforming the system, partly because it is too much a self-invited burden and risk, and partly because there is too little support from the top political and bureaucratic leadership.  

The overarching chalta hai (everything goes) attitude that permeates the government systems in general, and the neglected area of public recruitment in particular, does not allow the culture of reform to prosper, even if one or two top functionaries may have the zeal for that. 

Recall the Supreme Court observation in the recent NEET paper leak case that even 0.001% negligence is too much. In fact, even this minute level of error is enormous when the numbers run into lakhs. Ideally, nothing more than ‘zero error’ should be acceptable in these examinations, and that is doable. In fact, a few examinations do reach that level by employing multiple technological and human barriers to malpractices, but they are an exception rather than the rule. 

5. Society’s rising tolerance towards all forms of corruption

We all are witness to not only wide-spread corruption in all spheres of life but also a rising tolerance towards it. 

Securing a prized seat in an institution of higher learning or profession, or a post in the public system should be an achievement in any society; however, the Indian society has learnt to treat it with the same regard even if it is secured by the most unfair means. In fact, not helping one’s kin to secure a ‘lucrative’ position by unethical and illegal means is often taken as a disservice to the community. 

The huge number of applications that certain lowly public-sector job advertisements receive is, arguably, a sign of how perverse the moral standards of society and job aspirants have become. These jobs do not offer good salary but might be luring a large number of aspirants because of the perceived unaccounted power, and the scope for making money by illegal means. 

Let us now have a look at the implications of examination-related malpractices on the governance system of a country.

WHEN RECRUITMENT PROCESS FAILS, THE RECIPIENT SYSTEM FAILS, AND THE ENTIRE SYSTEM FAILS

On the face of it, examination-related malpractices and crimes are not too serious a matter when the society looks to be beset with issues of gargantuan proportions. 
However, public examinations not only provide jobs, they recruit public servants. These examinations, therefore, have the responsibility to check undesirable candidates out as much as to select suitable candidates, because a rotten apple can contaminate the entire lot while all the good apples in the lot cannot prevent that. With that in mind, allow me to call major examination-related issues as ‘examination failures’, which is not intended as a pun but it is the bitter reality. 

When examinations are badly conducted, institutions and government offices are stuffed with unsuitable students/ employees, who are a burden on the system.During their long career, they are likely to keep using corrupt means. In fact, recruitment of candidates with an unethical mindset from the beginning, is one of the major sources of corruption in the public sector. 

Worse, such candidates are seen as role-models by other aspirants and their own community due to rising tolerance in the society for adoption of unfair means in all walks of life.

That applies to unsuitable students selected in the professional and general education system, and in a more perverse way:When young minds adopt unfair means for quick gains, and if they succeed in their small efforts, they get emboldened to adopt such means when they later enter the job market or run their own enterprises. As youth and adults, they are less likely to stand against social ills and less hesitant to adopt corrupt means wherever opportunity arises. 

Public servants serve at the cutting edge of many public utilities and law-enforcement functions, where their conduct not only influences others, it also determines the quality of the service, and makes or mars public perception about the immediate service provider and the government at large. 

In India, examinations fail in many ways, and the sundry cases of paper leaks and impersonation that spring up in the media are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Having worked in the UPSC and SSC, I can say with full knowledge of the working of job-related examinations, that most of our major examinations fail. Some fail in selecting the most suitable candidates and are generally free from malpractices, but most others fail in stopping malpractices and end up selecting candidates that should never have been selected.

I am reminded of the words of NC Saxena, who served as the head of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, which trains top civil servants of India, regarding the low moral values of candidates selected for civil services. He once said that what they receive (from the recruiting agency) is chaff and the training academy is then expected to convert them to grains.

Thousands of cases of misconduct by public servants that surface every year, and crores (no exaggeration) that go unnoticed or are taken as ‘part of the game’ can be prevented, or at least brought down by a big margin, if the governments concentrate on sanitising the recruitment process. 

It is not only corruption, but the work culture that too suffers when unsuitable candidates join the system. With their knowledge and experience of undermining the system, candidates entering through backdoor would not believe in ‘earning an honest bread’ and taking up responsibilities but keep busy in manipulating the system for faster promotions, less-taxing and ‘lucrative’ postings, and receiving other types of undue favours from the system. 

Conversely, when the aspirants to public posts know that they cannot enter the system by unfair means, it would make examination malpractices less tempting. This will likely lead to a virtuous cycle taking place in which malpractices are disincentivised, only suitable candidates enter the system, corruption is public services is minimized.

Talking of the higher and profession education, a system that allows only meritorious and hard working students is likely to improve scholarship and merit, while also [likely] reducing the highly money-minded worldview of qualifying students as is the case at present. 

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The author has held the posts of Member, Staff Selection Commission, and a senior officer in the UPSC. He has also written research papers on civil service recruitment in India. He has been associated with a few committees on overhauling the examination system and overall administrative reforms.

(डिस्क्लेमर : इस लेख में व्यक्त विचार लेखक के स्वयं के हैं। रागदिल्ली.कॉम के संपादकीय मंडल का इन विचारों से कोई लेना-देना नहीं है।)