Anti-cheating Act Does Not Reduce the Incentive to Cheat in Exams

Indian Parliament in February, 2024 passed the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024 law to prevent cheating in examinations.Many have praised it for addressing the issue of leaked question papers before the exam. The Act focuses on regulating how exams are conducted by public examination authorities like the Union Public Service Commission, Staff Selection Commission, Railway Recruitment Board, National Testing Authority and various Ministries and Department of Central Governments that have linkages to conducting exams. The Act requires an evaluation to verify if it delivers on what it promises. 

Human beings before acting on anything, weigh the reward to be gained against the cost incurred of any action. When costs outweigh reward, behaviour can change. When it comes to cheating in public examinations, this is an important yardstick to use. Does the new Act to prevent cheating reduce the incentive to cheat? 

Another yardstick to evaluate the Act on is to see if provisions in the act achieve the stated objective. The Act aims to “prevent” unfair means during public examinations. In the act the term prevent implies to stop something from happening. Does the Act provide preventive measures that will stop cheating and the leaking of question papers? 

The Act does not alter the incentives to cheat in an exam. Nor does it offer preventive measures. What it does provide is a list of offences and punishments related to actions of unfair means used to answer public examinations. The Act at best deters cheating but does not prevent it.

Punishment is the end resort when prevention is no longer possible. It’s also important to judge the provisions of the Act based on the statement of objects and reasons articulated in the bill. One such statement stands out: “The Bill is aimed at effectively and legally deterring persons, organised groups or institutions that indulge in various unfair means and adversely impact the public examination systems for monetary or wrongful gains”. It’s worth noting that the title of the Act and stated objectives are two different approaches. The approach of prevention and the deterrence approach. Questions worth asking are, should one approach be selected over another? Is there a suitable mix of the two approaches that is required to end cheating in Indian public exams?

The deterrence approach is a response for a person who has committed the offence and their action has revealed where and how the system is vulnerable. The punishment serves as a signal tto communicate exploiting this vulnerability again will have consequences. But being able to catch the offence, investigate to find out who has committed it, and proving it, are important pre-conditions of this approach. The Act does not disincentivize the candidate from considering taking advantage of the system and making wrongful gains, in the first place.  

To be sure, I am not against punishment or imposition of fines on offenders. But just punishment without effective preventive measures cannot reduce the incentive to attempt cheating and other unfair means taken in an exam. It is possible to see how this approach played out and how it failed at achieving its purpose. 

In Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, Gujrat, and Uttarakhand, there are a series of news reports on question papers getting leaked and rampant cheating taking place to answer the exam. Most of these states already have a law similar to the one proposed by the Central Government. The state laws too, do not disincentivize cheating. It is becoming clear that cheating in India is not an occasional lapse in the system but an instance of a broken system. 

Many see exams as systems of fairness that are also gateways of opportunity. Public examinations are a crucial part of our education system and public services. Success in a public exam can lead to getting a job or an admission in the top tier of higher-education institutes of India. Exam scores are a scale to measure the chances of a person’s success too. We have started valuing exam scores more than the quality of education offered. This is also why we live in a flood of coaching centres. Added expenses on exam prep and the better prospects from cracking the exam are huge incentives to want to cheat. Unfortunately, nothing is being done to address it.It is also worth asking, when exam papers leak, is the government not a liable party? It is in fact a breach of trust that candidates and their families put in the government. By filling out forms and paying a fee to take the exam, candidates have entrusted the government the duty to conduct a fair exam. When cheating takes place, the government is liable to the candidates taking the exam. The breach has many consequences that are hard to remedy for candidates, like the time wasted in preparing for the exam instead of pursuing something else. It could also be monetary like the travel and lodging expenses paid by millions of persons who do not live close to exam centres.

Strong incentives to use unfair means to clear exams still exist. The Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024 at best serves a deterrent, but it does little to prevent the cheating taking place in India’s public examinations.