Lions, Tigers, and CHEATERS!! OH MY!

The school system here in India is way different from the states. Students attend school year round. Several times in the year, students have to take huge exams. For a week an a half, I did not teach at all because all students had exams. In the meantime, I was assigned three teachers a day to relieve them for 15-20 minutes.
From this experience I found that cheating is normalized at my school and all other schools in India.  Indian students (no offence) were bred to cheat because one's success in this country is based on test scores--nothing else. Students will do anything (i.e. cheat) to make the grade.

By the end of the exam week, I reported several students for cheating. The first few had notes hidden under their actual exams and many were caught because right in front of me they were asking other students for answers. When I catch them, I record their names/grade and report it to their teacher. To my surprise, the teachers just shake their head, write the name down and plan to yell at the student later—that’s it! The worst case took place when I was just about through with my shift because the assigned teacher came in. The moment she came in, she approached a student and slapped her (the teacher noticed she had a cheat sheet). I was SHOCKED! I felt so bad because she was one of my good students. Although cheating disgusts me, hitting a child disgusts me more. No teacher should EVER feel he/she has the right to put his/her hands on someone else's child.

 Realizing how serious I am with cheating, later in the week another teacher explained to me that naturally teachers avoid taking actions against students for cheating to avoid having disputes with the students’ parents. So basically, teachers quietly look away while other students cheat?,” I said to the teacher. He then said, well “worst comes to worst, their marks (grades) will be knocked off a few points.” GASP! A few points? What is the whole point of this educational system?, I thought.