How to prevent students from cheating

To stop rampant cheating, states need to fix the quality of their educational institutions

 

Fifty-seven students and 14 teachers were booked in mass cheating incidents in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura and Agra last week. Pictures and videos showed friends and relatives of the students scaling walls and passing chits through windows at the examination centres. Students were caught blatantly copying from each other.

According to newspaper reports, an organised network helps students write examinations in return for money. Invigilators were booked; so was the chief superintendent of a centre. On learning of the incident, the deputy district collector visited an examination centre in Mathura. How ineffective the authorities in the state are is evident from the fact that he was attacked and his vehicle was damaged as locals pelted stones.

The whole incident is a repeat of what happened in Bihar last year when photographs of mass cheating and relatives scaling high walls to help students with chits made international headlines.

Despite the worldwide ridicule, the state government failed to take stern action against the students. Although the government holds the right to debar students from taking examinations for up to three years, jailing or charging a fine, no action of this sort was taken. The government, on its part, claimed that it had expelled several students. But most suspect that the punishment was primarily on paper. If the authorities concerned had taken stern action a year ago, we might not have seen a repeat in UP.

Shifting the blame from the state to the parents, Bihar's education minister expressed the state's helplessness - he was quoted as saying, "What can the government do to stop cheating if the parents and relatives are not ready to cooperate? Should the government give orders to shoot them?"

Shooting may be an extreme punishment, but there's no reason why the culprits should get off scot-free. I have a couple of suggestions.

Let all institutions financially supported by the central government and various other state universities refuse or place a ban on students from Uttar Pradeshand Bihar till such time that the state governments are able to get their act together and prove the sanctity of the examination system. There is no reason why a student from Bihar or Uttar Pradesh board should be placed on an equal footing with a student from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Kerala or any other state where such incidents are rarely found. On what basis can the results of the student from one of these states be treated on a par with the other state boards?

If this is the scale of cheating as has been reported, one shudders to think how much goes unnoticed or unreported. If teachers and invigilators have to be brought to book and parents and relatives are in cahoots, the problem may be more endemic than we think (evidence that it is came from a recent Army recruitment examination - again in Bihar - where examinees were stripped down to their underwear before being permitted to sit for it).

If for any reason a total ban is not a ready option, let's start with a 10 per cent penalty on the final results. So, if student scores 90 per cent marks in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, let him be treated on par with a student from other states with 80 per cent: a 10 per cent penalty for the lawlessness of the state machinery and a student and parent body that seems devoid of basic morals. There's no reason why Delhi or any other university cannot issue a decree stating that in light of these incidents it cannot continue to treat these students as they were treated in the past because that amounts to penalising the rest, the ones who do not employ unfair means.

This may not fully stop the menace, but it will be a powerful check since one of the main reasons students - encouraged and abetted by parents - cheat is that they are looking to get out of the state at any cost and study in institutions outside of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Higher education institutions in these states are pathetic, and parents and students are willing to do anything - including cheating - to escape them.

So to answer the minister's question, the state government can start by trying to improve the quality of its own educational institutions.

What is a librarian?

There seems to be little argument that the stereotypical kind older matron with the white hair in a bun is no longer staffing the public library.  In addition, depending on your school district, you are less and less likely to see a public school with a full time librarian staffing the desk when your children come by for reading time.  It may even be true that Katherine Hepburn’s days in the classic film Desk Set depicting a corporate librarian are long gone.  Indeed, with the advent of the Internet and search engines such as Google, who needs a librarian?  I am here to tell you, you do.  You need a librarian, and mostly because you have no idea what a librarian does.

A colleague recently sent me a copy of the WSJ’s article, In Age of Google, Librarians Get Shelved.  While I generally enjoy a provocative editorial from the WSJ, I cannot fail to see how far off the mark this particular article fell.  In the Age of Google, librarians are needed more now than ever.  I am not here to proclaim that things must go on as they are.  I am here to tell you that you cannot go on without your librarian, and your librarian is your ticket to the future.  As my experience is focused in the legal arena, my comments and examples will draw from that industry.

Let’s set aside the fact that there is still a vast section of the population that does not know how to utilize the fantastic tools of the Internet, such as Google.  I am not just referring to those who are older in years.  My dear husband is terrified of technology.  He won’t admit it, but he conveniently can’t find any electronic device to Google even the most basic of questions when the need arises. I am his search engine.  Even a group text sends him into fits.  He is not alone.  While iPhones and Android phones are ubiquitous, it does not mean that everyone in our society knows how to research online.  And even more important to the seekers of accurate information, being published online does not make a fact true.  “I pulled this up on Wikipedia” might as well be, “I closed my eyes and threw a dart at the wall”.  I was recently asked to verify a piece of research material found online.  The truth was, there was absolutely no way to verify the material.  It came from a dubious website, and had no citations or any scholarly backing.  In fact, the only thing it did have were words stating exactly what the requestor was looking for.  Well if that isn’t the Bible truth, then I don’t know what is.

I return to my original question.  What is a librarian?   Some of the best librarians I have met and had the privilege of working with could be described with a few of the following characteristics:

• Organized
• An attention to detail
• Naturally grouping and organizing like things
• An inquisitive mind
• The ability to break down problems
• The ability to rely on a vast amount of knowledge to recall where information is located (in print, electronically, or real tangible matter.
• A detective like mind, working to find each piece of the puzzle

A librarian researches, organizes and presents information.  A librarian is aware of their area of expertise.  As a legal librarian I work with the law, and more specifically I work with Labor and Employment law.  On my team the librarians understand the basics of Labor and Employment Law. They watch new developments and explore trends in our particular area of law and indeed in the practice of law.  This expertise allows them to provide our attorneys with excellent research distilled down to the information required to best respond to the clients’ need.

What about all of the administrative work that is done in a library?  Does it take a Master’s Degree to put a book on a shelf?  No, it does not and that is precisely why most institutions utilize para-professionals.  I dislike this term as it implies that a library assistant is not a professional, however; the term does indicate that the person in question has library skills and works in a library but does not have a MILS and does not perform high level research.  In my particular organization we use library assistants to do a host of tasks that help free up time for any number of professionals including our librarians and our attorneys.  Someone does have to open the invoices, shelve the books, manage IDs, maintain databases , manipulate spreadsheets, route the newsletters, and deliver requests for copies of court documents.  None of these tasks should be confused with the in depth specialized research performed by highly skilled librarians.  A librarian is not, and may I assert never has been the person who reads and checks out books.  True these tasks must be done, and often a librarian might have done them. But in that same vein an attorney uses the copier, answers the telephone, and knows how to make coffee in the office.  Does that make the attorney a clerk?

One might be tempted to ask, why can’t the attorneys (or any professional) do this research themselves?  Well they could, just like you can remodel your house by yourself.  The work will get done, but without the special skills needed. It will take longer, be lower quality, and in the end could cost you more than hiring a professional.  If you are an attorney in a large firm with a billing requirement and a cost conscious client, you certainly do not want to waste your time, firm resources, or the client’s money.

The Wall Street journal probably did get one thing correct.  That very kind white haired lady behind the reference desk at the public library is likely going to retire soon, and very likely she will not be replaced.  However, the state of public libraries and local government finances is light years away from the conclusion asserted in the article that all librarians are now useless.  Librarianship as a profession is not dead.  If anything, this is the best time to become a librarian.  Maybe we need to rename the librarian something more appropriate, such as Research and Information professional, to take away the stigma.  With the VAST amount of data and information flooding the Internet someone has to be available to sort it out, organize it, decipher truth from fiction, and get you a fully formatted client ready report before your noon meeting on Tuesday.  Good luck pulling that off using Google.

Mastering the art of presentation

The stories showcased at TED and INK events are inspiring for listeners—but they are also a crash course in crafting an impactful presentation

It was October 2013, and 15-year-old Angad Daryani was on his way to the TED (technology, entertainment, design) India office at the Indiabulls building in Mumbai to prepare for a talk that would be uploaded as a YouTube video. Daryani had jotted down the concept of the video, which eventually got 300,000 views, on a scrap of paper in a taxi. The 6-minute talk, featured at the TEDx conference in Mumbai in December 2013, told his story—one of rebelling against the school system to study science at home, and inventing a 3D printer. 

Daryani, then a class X student, had been spotted a few weeks earlier at an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Labs event by TEDx senior ambassador Yashraj Akashi. “He was a prodigy; at age 8, he had made his own robots from a Lego Mindstorms kit,” says Akashi. 

Here was the kind of profile TED was looking for: a young prodigy who could inspire others, somebody who could speak at a conference and whose speech could be uploaded online to be watched by TED enthusiasts. The TED team took over, and the next few months saw Daryani being coached several times a week on how to design an impactful presentation and deliver it the way most TED presenters do.

This is what has made TED such a successful brand. It has moved from a single annual conference in 1984, featuring speakers in the fields of technology, entertainment and design, to a global entity that issues licences to individuals and institutions to organize TED-like events, referred to as TEDx events. The licences for these events are free but come with a long list of rules on the curation of speakers, content and presentation of talks. 

Watching the best TED videos and attending select TED conferences is a learning exercise for every professional who has to present ideas and communicate on multiple forums. Much of this comes from TED curator Chris Anderson. “He (Anderson) can spot an idea 6 miles away and knows how to craft it into a story that has impact,” says Akashi.

TED’s website tells would-be presenters how to structure the perfect presentation. Each speaker is given access to a speaker kit on how to present a talk. “In my sessions with the TED team, I learnt how important it was to address a problem that matters to the audience. In my case, it was the difficulties of being able to invent while being in a rote-learning school system, before going on to be home-schooled. I have learnt since then how to sell things and how to convince people. That’s empowering,” says Daryani.

Deepika Malla, who was part of the founding team at TEDx Gateway in India and still works as a mentor with TEDx, explains the process: “We train speakers at several levels. We start with the main structure and draft of the talk. The speakers must have an EQ (emotional quotient) point of view. They need to be able to vary their tone, be more assertive when they are presenting data, and be more conversational and candid when they are speaking about their story. We even tell them to smile and maintain eye contact for impactful presentations.”

The power of this communication was visible at the Tata Theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai on 5 December, when about 1,000 people gathered for the annual TEDx Gateway conference. Speakers, past and present, mingled with the crowd of volunteers, students and professionals from different age groups. Apart from Daryani, now 17 years old, there were presenters like YouTube and playback pop singer Natalie Di Luccio, who has worked with composer A.R. Rahman.

As speakers like Ritu Karidhal, deputy operations director of the Mars Orbital Mission at the Indian Space Research Organisation, described the two challenges of the mission, and Sonam Wangchuk (the man who inspired the character played by Aamir Khan in the film 3 Idiots) told the story of his school in Ladakh, many in the audience took notes.

“It costs Rs.5,000 to attend, but it’s worth it,” says Mena Malgonkar, a 44-year-old artist and advertising professional. “I love that they manage to get people like the Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde as well as local talent like photojournalist Sudharak Olwe. It brings a certain freshness...,” she says.

Ever since TEDx India conferences began in 2009, the brand has cast its net wide. There are TEDx city events, corporate TEDx events and TEDx youth and college events, each hosted by local organizers. 

Nimit Parikh, a third-year economics and statistics student at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai, had been hooked to TED talks ever since he saw writer Simon Sinek’s famous talk on leadership. His inspiration to apply for a TEDx licence and host an event came from the desire to make peers in college aware of ideas they had never thought of, from physics to fashion. He got the licence and successfully hosted the event in his college in February 2015. 

Besides TED and its franchises, there are also TED-inspired conferences. The best known of these are the INK conferences. Founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Lakshmi Pratury worked with TED before she founded INK in 2010. At its three-day event in Mumbai last year, Pratury and her team put together a TED-like line-up of speakers, including a whole set of young achievers and INK fellows. The speakers included photographer Anand Varma and corporate head honchos like Edelweiss CEO Rashesh Shah and Facebook India’s outgoing managing director Kirthiga Reddy. 

This conference period is “a time to jump in and immerse oneself in a sea of ideas and stories”, says Pratury. She adds that INK tries to bring in more local stories. Like TED, it runs a fellows programme, giving talented young people an opportunity to showcase their stories. Last year, 22-year-old Babar Ali, who started a school in his native Murshidabad, spoke at the Mumbai conference; INK helped him to raise funds for his school. 

“We help them shape their stories to an extent, and work with the speaker to reveal the real person behind the persona,” says Pratury, who has forged partnerships with organizations like Manipal University, Edelweiss and the Tata Trust. They work together on programmes, like that of the INK fellows, and even on identifying speakers for the annual INK conference. 

“INK is a newer brand than TED and so not as advanced as TED in curating conferences,” says 23-year-old Advait Tinaikar, who worked at the auto maker Skoda and is now looking to be a social entrepreneur. He says he was a little disappointed with the lack of interaction at INK conferences, both with speakers and other attendees.

Many TED talks have YouTube views running into millions. But the expansion of the brand has also led to criticism, both of TEDx events and of the annual TED conference itself. The most quoted is that of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, who says that TED talks are a “monstrosity that turn scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers, like circus performers”. 

Inventor Kshitij Marwah, 27, admits that some scientific content may be dumbed down. “It’s often a vision of the technology rather than the actual technology,” he explains.

Marwah has presented at both TED and INK talks. “I have learnt how to tell my story. My first TED talk was all about technology; it had no emotional content. But in the second talk, where I talked about my own story and struggles and also about technology, I was able to connect a lot more with the audience,” he says. 

He is all for expansion: “India needs many more of these (talks) so that authentic stories can become role models. But remember, these are other people’s stories. You need to chart your own story and be able to tell it.”