This Is The System That Led To Bihar’s ‘Prodigal Science’ Topper Almost Getting Away

Ruby Rai sounds like she’s never been to school.

The class 12 Humanities topper doesn’t know how:how to pronounce the subject she aced (#ProdigalScience), doesn’t know how many marks she needed to top, ?or even what political science is. ?Yet, In the Facebook comments on many articles we’ve done on Ruby Rai. many have defended her. ?

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She was a victim of a system, many wrote, and instead of vilifying one girl, the media should address this “system”.

But what exactly is this “system”?

Her teachers, her college, the principal, and even the Bihar government - here's everyone who made this happen

Bihar’s 50 year old legacy of cheating

Bihar has always believed in an exam where "everyone is invited to help — parents, family, neighbourhood, tutors and even teachers." Speaking to the Times of India, a Bhar local remembered how exam season was a carnival for his town' government schools: "At least four people would accompany babua in his tryst to clear the paper — the father or any elderly male from the family, a sprightly kid who could scurry fast into the school and fetch the paper, one brainy guy can answer the questions and often, a concerned and caring neighbour."?

1970s Bihar CM Manas Thakur even announced that failure in English still meant you were a “matric pass”.?

Bihar students reportedly would travel miles to find the printing press that printed the paper, the guy who set the paper, and even use family clout to set up your exam at a location where your clan or uncle had some power so cheating was easy.?

Despite all this, It took Bihar years to treat cheaters as criminals: the state has only recently announced anti-cheating measures like coded answer sheets, video surveillance, and fines. ?Ramadin Sharma, a retired school teacher told the Hindu that Bihar’s Board Exam pass percentage in Bihar fell from 73.5% in 1993 to 12% in 1996, when the Patna High Court was involved in exam supervision. In February, state authorities in Bihar announced that students caught cheating would have to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000, and that parents, guardians, and friends caught helping students cheat would be booked under IPC Section 144, and jailed.

Other names

While the full story isn't clear yet, the police has arrested Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) former chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh and his wife Usha Sinha, as well as the alleged kingpin of the scam,Amit Kumar (alias Bachcha Rai), principal of V.R. College, where the scam took place. ?He is alleged to have been manipulating, in collusion with the BSEB, the merit list of Class 12 examinees in favour of students who paid him bribes.

Teachers?

Reporters have found that it’s easy to find a "network of fixers, touts and impostors guaranteeing high scores in 12th standard". These included teachers, exam officials and headmasters. They found that fees for rigging the exam, which included getting a "scholar" to write the exam for you, could run as high as Rs. 50,000

Her father

From her statement (and considering that no exam official would fudge the numbers for free), it's likely that Rai's father bribed officials in his bid to 'take care of her results'.

And the last piece of the puzzle - Ruby Rai herself

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Ruby Rai she knew that this system had existed long before her. ?She casually asked her dad to use it in her favour - just like asking a daughter might ask her dad for a handbag or a new dress. She is a criminal, and this attention is her paying the price for the price her father possibly paid as a bribe. ?She wasn't forced into it - it's really not that hard to scrape together enough marks to pass.

She didn't need the marks so she could waltz into a premium educational institute - she wouldn't survive the first day of college.?