In the popular narrative of spokespersons and acolytes of the BJP/NDA government which was swept to power in Delhi in General Election 2014 — with the BJP emerging as the first political party since 1985 to win an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha — the western seaboard state of Gujarat (pop.65 million), ruled by incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi for three terms (2001-2014) as chief minister, is a model of socio-economic development and good governance. However, not a few well-informed educationists and social reformers including Nobel laureate Dr. Amartya Sen, have remarked that Gujarat’s socio-economic development indicators of the new millennium have been less than impressive.

On the Educational Development Index (EDI) of the Delhi-based National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NUEPA), which assesses the record of states on the parameters of access, infrastructure, teacher quality and students’ learning outcomes in primary education, Gujarat is ranked #12 in 2013-14, an improvement over its #18 ranking in the previous year.

Moreover, according to a government commissioned survey on child health, Gujarat trails Bihar on the critical indicator of child immunisation, and ill-hosts more underweight and stunted children than the national average. 

The state’s poor track record in education development recently received affirmation in the class XII general stream (arts and commerce) results of the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) which indicated a pass percentage of a mere 54.98 percent. This is the lowest success rate in the higher secondary exam of the state board in 22 years. But that’s only half the story.

This modest pass percentage would have been worse, if not for an unprecedented decision to award 18 ‘grace marks’ to 100,000 ‘borderline cases’ which raised the pass percentage to 54.98 from a disastrously low 37 percent, an outcome which prompted chief minister Anandiben Patel to summon the board’s chairman and its senior officials for an explanation a day after the results were out. The class XII general stream exam written by 529,699 students on March 18-25 tests the commerce and humanities knowledge of students. Of them, 291,210 were declared passed.

Ironically, state education ministry officials attribute the low pass percentage in the GSHSEB class XII exam to better policing by the board to curb cheating and exam malpractices. The education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama takes pains to highlight the role of CCTVs and tablet cameras installed by the board in all examination centres. “This helped in keeping a tight vigil,” he says.

Implicit in this boast is that the better higher secondary results recorded by the 9,000-plus schools affiliated with GSHSEB in previous years were due to lax invigilation and supervision of exams.

Stricter vigilance in the class XII boards may well have become necessary, given an astounding 8,768 cases of cheating/copying were reported in the recently held class X Senior Secondary Board (SSC) exams with 5,656 cases of cheating, copying and malpractices filed in Anand, one of the state’s most prosperous districts.

Embarrassed by reports of mass cheating in the SSC exam and the worst class XII results in 22 years, Anandiben Patel, a former school principal, has announced a cash incentive scheme for education ministry officials. Under the scheme, education officers and block resource coordinators of talukas in which schools achieve A+ or A grades will be awarded cash prizes of Rs.20,000, education inspectors Rs.15,000 and block resource persons and community resource coordinators Rs.10,000 each, while principals and teachers of ‘A’ grade schools will receive merit certificates.

But these cash awards have an inherent danger. Invigilation could become lax again.

R.K Misra (Gandhinagar)