In creativity, none can beat a child. But some kids are brought up in environments where hoodwinking is the norm. There is so much ‘conningness’ ingrained in their desi blood, that they have become masters in this art.

As was portrayed in ‘Twelfth Fail’, in most village schools, children are led to believe that honesty is a useless principle. Therefore preparing chits for cheating is not against the rules but often a norm.

Although it may seem shocking, even in most cities kids feel it isn’t a wrong practice. If the curriculum is poor, and lecturers are ‘poorer’, they bank on private tutorials. Or just buy what they call one of the ‘cheat books’ and memorise all answers.

Corruption in university is also common. The rich bribe their way to examination success. A whole subset of the youth population are brokers between desperate students and avaricious administrators. Some even openly talk about their ‘democratic’ right to cheat.

Students bribe to get admission. Invigilators get bribed to pass them. Researchers get professors to write their dissertations. And some professors also deceive by publishing articles in bogus journals.

A few months back outright cheating marred the Class 10 Board exam at a school in Haryana, when videos went viral showing people climbing up the walls to help students cheat.

Recently an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer shared a picture of how a student had placed money inside an answer sheet, with a request to give him passing marks. The funny part is that many responded to the post, with a ‘Me Too’ kind of statement. This tells a lot about our students, teachers and the entire educational system.

Then there is another category of those who are less of students and more of local thugs. Just because of their political links, they are so renowned that invigilators dare not touch them. These confident ruffians just plant daggers on their desks in the exam hall and leave them there as a silent warning sign that says: ‘Leave me alone... or else!’

The world of academics dramatically altered when the COVID-19 pandemic forced students out of physical classrooms and into the virtual realm. When help from teachers became difficult, students turned to the Internet to find answers, leading to a rise in accusations of academic dishonesty.

Apart from offline universities, many private online ones also mushroomed. For example, a ‘Zap University’ was established where students paid large sums of money to enrol. Then one fine day… Voila! The university just disappeared from the internet. Since it had no physical location, it could not be traced. Like its name, it just went ‘Zap’!

When an app called ‘Chegg’ was launched, to help students with their homework and tests, some allegedly used it to cheat by copying down answers for lessons and the term ‘chegging’ became popular. With students and teachers interacting online, there was no supervision. Thus making it easy for kids to switch between browser tabs while taking online tests to get correct answers.

Academic misconduct is not a recent concept. However, nowadays the percentage of students tempted by an easy way to get a better grade has significantly increased.

But nothing compares to the whacky kind of immoral misappropriation that took place a few days back. Get ready to read the most bizarre kind of fraud ever in the history of cheating!

At Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University, in Jaunpur town, some students passed out with flying colours. But two others, who suspected foul play, demanded a re-evaluation of the answer sheets.

Under the RTI Act, they claimed that the professors had accepted bribes and unlawfully passed them. Taking cognisance of the matter, the Varsity formed a committee and a probe was ordered to investigate the matter.

On re-evaluation, not only was a significant difference noted in the marks assigned, even the answers were totally wrong and unrelated to the content. The kids seemed to be keen cricket lovers and ‘religious’ in nature, for what was written were just a random name of cricketers like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, followed by an urgent appeal to Lord Ram, asking them to pass them: ‘Jai Shree Ram- Hum pass ho jaayein’, was what the slogan read.

The funny part is that everyone who wrote these ‘answers’ were inexplicably awarded passing grades of over 50 percent! Since God helps only those who help themselves, the Lord decided to teach the errant kids and the fraudulent invigilators a lesson.

This was a category of cleverness that could not be overlooked, because marks are awarded to examinees on the basis of quality of the right answers. Not in rattling down names of cricketing heroes or penning holy impositions. So the kids were punished and the lecturers suspended.

Yes, prayer changes things but effort is also needed. Learning brings insight, which fuels curiosity, which cultivates wisdom. Academic integrity cannot be compromised because it undermines the core idea of education: the spread of knowledge.

Therefore it’s crucial to understand that cheating is unethical. And bribing is immoral. The downfall of every civilization comes, not just from moral corruption, but from the moral complacency of those who think they can get away with anything.

Nargis Natarajan is a writer, author and novelist residing in Bhubaneswar. Views expressed are the writer’s own.

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