A school principal in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has been caught red-handed giving tips and tricks to students to cheat in the upcoming career-defining examinations.
Soon after a video went viral on social media, the state police launched an inquiry into the matter and detained the manager.
In the video, Praveen Mall, principal of a school was secretly filmed asking students to cheat without any fear of being caught and maintain discipline if caught.
#WATCH Mau: Manager of Harivansh Memorial Inter College gives instructions to students appearing in state board examination; says 'write your exam with the help of cheating and maintain discipline when your 'chit' is caught'. (18.02) pic.twitter.com/nMeiUQmQai
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 20, 2020
“Don't leave any answers. Just put an INR 100 note in the answer sheet... the teachers will blindly give you passing marks. Even if you give wrong answer to a question, which is for four marks, they will give you three marks", Mall said in the video.
The principal asked the students to make the school proud by passing with good marks and said: "Even if your chit (cheating material) get caught, maintain discipline. If the invigilator slaps you, tell him to slap you more. Request him".
The video clip has led to people raising questions about the state's education system and the government’s measures to tackle the situation. Netizens also slammed Mall for giving tips to cheat instead of teaching students.
The Principal wouldn't have taught the students for the whole academic year.
— Shivam Shukla (@this_is_shivam) February 20, 2020
He might have been busy sleeping in the classrooms.
Then we complain about unemployment!! How does anyone expect such students to get good jobs? Destroying Education is देश द्रोह. @Swamy39 @TajinderBagga @narendramodi @anjanaomkashyap @AnupamPKher
— Amit Attry 🇮🇳 (@amitattry) February 20, 2020
Sir please take action against this @UPGovt @drdineshbjp @myogiadityanath !!
— Chanakya (@TheDebonair19) February 20, 2020
A crackdown by the state government in 2019 saw over 1 million students out of a total 6.6 million dropping out of annual examinations.