India’s exam system in chaos, some families pay thousands to help their children cheat – DNyuz

India’s massive examination machine is malfunctioning.

This year, the country’s main testing body, the National Testing Agency (NTA), has faced a series of controversies.

These range from exam delays and cancellations to more serious allegations of question errors and leaked exam papers.

While NTA officials deny that any exam papers were leaked, Federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the BBC in June that “some irregularities” had been found.

Now it seems that some are taking advantage of the exam chaos.

According to the Wall Street Journal, some middle-class families pay criminal gangs thousands of dollars to help their children pass these exams.

Indian Medical Entrance Exam Fraud

Cheating is a particularly common problem in India’s highly competitive medical entrance examination, also known as the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).

This year, about 2.4 million students in India sat for the exam, vying for a place in a medical school, which is about 0.02% of that number.

“Very few people can do it on the first try,” one student, who asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, told Business Insider.

She spent a year preparing for the bachelor’s and master’s exams. During that time, she woke up at 4 in the morning and studied at least 10-12 hours a day.

Some prefer to take an easier route.

The Journal found that several students had paid $15,000-20,000 to illegally look at the paper for the exam. BI could not independently verify the figures.

Police have made several arrests in connection with exam fraud after results revealed that 67 people had achieved perfect scores in this year’s NEET exams.

“Questions are being sold for exorbitant prices,” Ashok Rathore, a police officer investigating cheating in India’s medical school exams, told the Journal. “It’s a hub of desperate students, parents, tutoring centers and printing presses.”

Leaked questions

One student told BI that several Telegram channels specifically dedicated to exam preparation had seen messages encouraging students who were “struggling with exams and didn’t have time to study” to reach out for “help.”

“My friend said he was asked to pay around 15,000 rupees ($180) to access the private channel where they shared the questions,” she said.

BI contacted the Telegram account and offered “help”. The person said they can provide next year’s medical entrance exam questions for around 1 lakh rupees ($1,200).

High scores in these exams mean coveted “places” in state and national government-run medical colleges.

People with money can still legally get a place in private medical colleges, if they pay tuition fees ranging from $115,000 to $145,000.

However, some students with the financial means prefer to cheat and secure a government position instead.

“It makes a lot of economic sense,” a senior medical advisor with knowledge of the matter told BI. “The exam paper is given for about Rs 25 lakh (about $29,000). For that amount, they get a free seat in a government college where they only have to pay about Rs 16,000 ($190) per year.”

“For the entire five-year course, that still amounts to about one lakh rupees ($1,191), so naturally wealthy students would rather do that than spend their own money on private medical schools.”

Earning a ‘merit’ seat

The consultant – who wished to remain anonymous but whose identity is known to BI – also said there was a significant amount of respect involved in “earning” a meritorious seat rather than paying for a private “management” seat.

“Unfortunately, there are few objective standards that people as outsiders have to judge the competence of their doctors, especially at a time when everyone in India with an MBBS board is sitting outside their clinic,” agreed Asish George, a doctor who passed the entrance exam in 2014.

“For those people, the fact that someone passed a very competitive entrance exam and was accepted would inspire more confidence than someone who paid for the entire exam themselves.”

According to the Journal, authorities in India have tried installing video cameras in exam halls and increasing their monitoring of social media to catch cheaters. But many are still finding ways to gain the upper hand illegally, at a high price.

The NTA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

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