The Economist - UK (2022-05-28)

50 Asia The Economist May 28th 2022

EducationinIndia

Testing situation

A

s india’s examseason kicked off earli­

er this year Facebook groups dedicated

to  helping  with  preparations  were  inun­

dated  with  offers  of  guaranteed  academic

success.  “Get  leaked  questions  and  an­

swers  before  your  upcoming  exam,  100%

guaranteed  and  secured,”  read  one.  “Get

certificate  without  sitting  exams  100%  le­

gal,” promised another. 

India’s education system is brutal. The

bar for entry to university is extraordinari­

ly  high.  There  is  a  near­unlimited  pool  of

applicants for the top institutions. Until it

changed  its  policies  this  year,  Delhi  Uni­

versity, among the best, required prospec­

tive students to have scored at least 99% in

their  school­leaving  exams.  Stratospheric

parental expectations only add to the pres­

sure. Getting into university is not the end

of  it,  either.  High  marks  are  necessary

there,  too,  so  that  graduates  can  go  on  to

foreign  universities  or  find  jobs  at  home.

Plenty of canny (if dubious) entrepreneurs

are only too happy to offer shortcuts to suc­

cess—for a hefty price. 

Cheating  is  thus  widespread.  It  is  also

organised and elaborate. In a survey in 2021

by Learning Spiral, a big provider of online­

exam software, 73% of university students

admitted to cheating in online tests. Neha,

who  teaches  at  an  engineering  college  in

Maharashtra, a western state, reckons that

90% of her students cheat in some form. 

At its simplest, cheating involves smug­

gling  notes  into  the  exam  hall  or  buying

stolen  test  papers.  Students  are  routinely

frisked as they enter the hall. Question pa­

pers  are  often  kept  under  lock  and  key  in

police  stations  or  government  buildings.

They are nonetheless commonly leaked on

social  media.  Sarita  Sinha,  a  former

schoolteacher who now runs a prep centre,

says  she  does  not  find  this  surprising.

“Even if you lock it in police stations, you

think  the  policemen  do  not  have  chil­

dren?”  she  says.  Yet  it  works  both  ways.

Once a paper is out online, it quickly goes

viral. This means everyone—including the

authorities—discovers  the  leak  and  ques­

tions can be changed.

Officials  are  turning  to  ever  more  so­

phisticated  and  stringent  measures.  This

year, the state of West Bengal installed in­

ternet jammers near schools in many dis­

tricts.  It  also  put  cctvcameras  in  exam

halls  and  insisted  students  trade  in  their

face masks for fresh ones provided by the

school. More basic methods are also used:

Widespread cheating is yet another

symptom of a poor education system

Australianpolitics

Political weather

F

irstcamefires,whichincineratedan

arealargerthanBritainandswallowed

citiesin asuffocating haze.Thencame

floods,whichinundatedtownsinQueens­

landandNewSouthWales.Climatechange

hasbecomehardertoignoresinceAustra­

lianslastvotedina federalelectionin2019.

WhentheyreturnedtothepollsonMay

21st,enoughofthemcasttheirballotswith

theclimateinmindtoousta conservative

coalitiongovernmentthathadbeeninof­

ficefornineyears.“Togetherwecanend

theclimatewars,”declaredthenewprime

minister,  Anthony  Albanese  (pictured),

after his Labor Party won.

These  wars  have  crippled  Australian

politics this century: three of the country’s

prime  ministers  have  lost  their  jobs  since

2010 for trying to cut emissions. Conserva­

tive politicians have stoked fear about do­

ing  so  on  the  basis  that  it  would  dent  the

jobs  and  wealth  generated  by  Australia’s

vast  coal  and  gas  industries.  Yet  they  are

increasingly  out  of  touch  with  the  public.

Some  60%  of  Australians  cite  climate

change  as  a  “serious  and  pressing  pro­

blem” which needs tackling even if “signif­

icant costs” are involved, according to the

Lowy Institute, a think­tank in Sydney. Mr

Albanese, or “Albo”, as he is known, prom­

ises to do more about it.

His Labor government will set a goal to

cut  emissions  by  43%  by  2030,  compared

with  2005  levels—up  from  the  coalition’s

26­28%.  It  will  focus  on  cleaning  up  elec­

tricity  generation,  the  biggest  source  of

Australia’s  carbon  emissions.  Most  of  the

country’s power comes from coal; in 2020

less than a quarter came from renewables.

Mr Albanese wants to raise that to 82% over

the  next  eight  years,  helped  by  a  modern­

isation of the transmission network. 

Still, his plans fall short of what scien­

tists  say  Australia  should  be  doing.  They

were  “deliberately  not  very  ambitious,  to

prevent  attacks  from  the  coalition”,  says

Frank  Jotzo,  a  climate  economist.  The  re­

sults  of  the  election  suggest  that  many

Australians would like Mr Albanese to have

a tougher climate policy. Less than a third

of them voted for Labor, making it the least

popular government in Australia’s history.

Mr  Albanese  prevailed  partly  because  his

opponent, Scott Morrison, fared so poorly.

Voters  in  cities  and  rich  suburbs  aban­

doned  Mr  Morrison’s  Liberals,  the  larger

party in the conservative coalition, for new

independent  and  Green  candidates  de­

mandingstronger  climate  action.  Second

votes,  under  a  preferential  voting  system,

helped push Labor to power.

Together,  those  new  mps  represent  a

third  force  in  Australia’s  parliament.  Six

“teals”, independents named after the col­

our  of  their  branding,  won  metropolitan

seats  held  by  the  Liberals  for  generations.

They called for cuts to emissions of at least

50%  by  2030.  The  Greens,  meanwhile,

made  gains  in  Australia’s  coal  heartland,

Queensland,  snatching  at  least  two  con­

stituencies  in  Brisbane.  Overall,  the  num­

ber  of  independent  and  minor­party  mps

in the House of Representatives has more

than doubled. About a third of Australians

voted for them—up from a quarter in 2019. 

Mr Albanese will not need their support

if  he  can  eke  out  a  majority  in  the  lower

house,  which  seemed  likely  as  The Econo-

mistwent  to  press.  (Postal  votes  were  still

arriving.)  The  prime  minister  insists  he

will  not  change  his  emissions  targets.  Yet

“he  cannot  ignore  the  pretty  overwhelm­

ing vote to deal with this issue”, says Frank

Bongiorno of the Australian National Uni­

versity in Canberra, the capital. And Labor

will  not  control  the  Senate.  The  Greens

made gains there too, and will hold its bal­

ance of power. They will push for a ban on

new coal and gas projects.

This is not the first time a government

promising  action  on  climate  has  been

elected. In 2007 Australians voted ina new

Labor  prime  minister,  Kevin  Rudd,  who

pledged to do more. His plans for an emis­

sions­trading  scheme  were  scuppered  by

the  Senate,  partly  because  Greens  voted

against  them  (the  scheme  was  weak,  they

argued).  Both  left­leaning  parties  have

“learnt from their mistakes to be more col­

laborative”,  says  Mr  Bongiorno.  Austra­

lians know a move away from coal is com­

ing.  Conservative politicians  may  keep

waging  climate wars—but  fewer  citizens

are enlisting. n

S YDNEY

Voters have made it clear that they

want action on climate change

Cleaning up