why para

Why Para?

The Vyapara scam made headlines because apparently hundreds perhaps even thousands of students had cheated abd obtained admission to various professional courses. Others had been recruited for jobs for which they were not qualified or had not made it through the selection process. In the fall out everywhere you looked there seemed to be someone not quite qualified to hold the post that they occupied. An incredible 30% of the lawyers are not  qualified. 1200 teachers resigned in Bihar as the government cracked the whip and announced that false degrees would result in a prison sentence. The furor is settling somewhat and the CBI is now on the cases.

Cheating is a very old, crafty and prevalent method of getting through life. I have a friend who has never appeared for an examination without acquiring the question paper before hand. His ingenuity knew no bounds. I suspect that if he had applied the same reasoning and effort to actually studying he would have passed with flying colours. When he was in school he hired a thief, (no mean feat for someone in 6^th grade ) to break into the principal’s cupboard, steal the question paper and then return it without it being obvious that the cupboard was broken into. He was meticulous about what he did. He only studied half the questions so that he could clear the exam with 50%. He never aspired to top the class, which he could have easily done. He continued this lifestyle through his college days as well. He used a great deal of ingenuity to find out in which state the question paper had been set and by whom. Money changed hands and voila! He got his 50%.

As a medical student we regularly received questions that were rumoured to be the actual paper. Some times it was but more important 50% of the time it wasn’t. The ones whose marks were consistent were the students who did not let this influence their frantic night before cramming.

Today with the electronic age, acquiring the question paper is not that much of a priority. Fancy in ear devices are used to transmit the answers. Candidates are paid to appear for the exam and then leave the hall in half an hour with the question paper. After they reach outside the answers are transmitted to those who paid. Some are paid to “proxy” appear instead of the actual candidate.

 Marks are interchanged. A failed candidate’s marks are altered with a successful candidate. Parents who do this have very good excuses.

“I need to get my daughter married—she needs to be a graduate.”

“Anyway my son is only joining the family business”.

“Why should my son/daughter not get admission? He/She is very intelligent.”

Eventually one boy had 22 arrears of of 24. The father was very annoyed. “They are demanding rs 1000 per mark. How can I pay so much?”

Perhaps if he invested the amount in tuitions the boy might actually clear the arrears.

This is not a problem of India alone. It definitely occurs in China as well. Some of the top US universities are not above allocating seats to the perhaps intellectually unfit children of people who have “donated” millions.

What happens to theses students? If they are stay at home moms, they are incapable of guiding their children or instilling in them values of right and wrong. The “failed “ candidates become professionals like  engineers and cut corners. They either don’t have a clue , or don’t care, and there are buildings and bridges collapsing.

The cheaters are small cogs but they play a part in the machinery that eventually turns the world.