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More than 600 students taking the class 10 board exams in Bihar’s Hajipur district have been expelled in the last two days after they were caught cheating in the examination.
The cheating did not just involve the students but even their parents who clambered over school building walls to pass chits and assist their wards and friends.
District officials said that over 100 parents were arrested on Thursday.
Bihar Education Minister P K Shahi on Thursday said that free and fair exam was not possible unless parents and guardians of over 1.4 million students in the state appearing for the examination cooperate with the state government.
“It is not possible to fully stop cheating during the exam,” Shahi told at a press conference.
"It is the responsibility of the society, not the state government alone, to ensure a cheating-free exam. More than the government parents and guardians of students should come forward for it," Shahi said.
Inspection authorities and police personnel who were posted outside the exam venues were unable to prevent the large-scale cheating and were outnumbered by the friends and parents involved in the wall-scaling. Some of the students not only take cheating material inside the exam centre, but also write their exam by keeping the material on desks.
Lalkeshwar Prasad, chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board, which conducts the examination, said the students were expelled on charges of adopting unfair means.
Prasad said he had instructed the board officials to take action against those indulging in unfair practices. “It is the responsibility of the district magistrate to ensure free and fair exams,” said Prasad.
According to officials in the board control office, over 1,000 students were caught cheating in the examination on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, only a little more than 600 were expelled.
Around 272 students were caught cheating on the first day of exams (Tuesday) followed by 257 on the second day (Wednesday) and 76 on third day- Thursday.
In Saran district alone, 357 students were expelled. Over 1.4 million students across Bihar appeared for the Class 10 board exam.
"About 14.26 lakh students commenced their class 10 exams at 1,217 examination centres across the state. The number of boys and girls appearing for the examination is around 7.7 lakh and 6.5 lakh,” board officials said.
The BSEB, which conducts the examinations, said it had made elaborate arrangements for peaceful and fair exams, but there were reports of widespread cheating in Saran, Vaishali, Nawada, Samastipur, Shekhpura, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Gaya, Patna, Jehanabad and Bhagalpur.
In Bihar, cheating is rampant and any action to stop it has often led to violent protests.
Photograph: ANI