Delhi’s govt-run schools to beat cheating with flying squads

NEW DELHI: Flying squads are on the prowl in the Capital’s government-run schools this exam season. The mission is to prevent students from cheating.

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The Delhi government has formed a dozen teams, headed by a sub-divisional magistrate, to conduct surprise checks in its schools during exams, a move that follows the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) administration’s promise to overhaul the education system and weed out malpractices.

The teams, called flying squads, started their work when the summative assessment (SA)-I exam for Class 3 to Class 12 began in more than 1,100 government schools from September 19. The exam ends on October 4.

“We usually have our internal teams conducting inspections. This is the first time we have formed independent external teams, headed by SDMs,” an official with the directorate of education (DoE) said.

There are 17 internal teams, headed by DoE officials.

A government directive spelt out the flying squad’s mandate: ensure zero tolerance is enforced in case of cheating during exams. The city does not have the problem of large-scale, organised cheating— the kind noticed in states such as Bihar where a photograph of men clinging to window sills of a four-storey school in Vaishali to pass answer chits to children writing an exam inside shocked the nation in 2015.

Delhi’s flying squad will be deterrent for anybody trying to do a Vaishali.

“It will help build a culture of intolerance towards cheating,” DoE director Saumya Gupta said. “This is to set an example for years to come.”

She clarified the move is not aimed at punishing students, but to plug any loop hole in conducting a fair exam.

“The teams will also check if papers were distributed on time and if students have proper seating arrangement because many of our schools are still constructing classrooms.”

Also, the squads will inspect the headmaster and teachers are not casual in their approach.

These exams are the first since the AAP government started its Chunauti 2018 scheme to improve the learning level in state-run schools.