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 offers of guaranteed academic
success. “Get leaked questions and an
swers before your upcoming exam, 100%
guaranteed and secured,” read one. “Get
certificate 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 find jobs at home.
Plenty of canny (if dubious) entrepreneurs
are only too happy to offer 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 find 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.
Officials 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
irstcamefires,whichincineratedan
arealargerthanBritainandswallowed
citiesin asuffocating haze.Thencame
floods,whichinundatedtownsinQueens
landandNewSouthWales.Climatechange
hasbecomehardertoignoresinceAustra
lianslastvotedina federalelectionin2019.
WhentheyreturnedtothepollsonMay
21st,enoughofthemcasttheirballotswith
theclimateinmindtoousta conservative
coalitiongovernmentthathadbeeninof
ficefornineyears.“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 first 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