More than 500 students in an impoverished Indian state have been caught and expelled for cheating on the ongoing state school-leaving examinations.
Photographs and video of men climbing the outside wall of an exam center in Bihar state to give the test-takers answer sheets have emerged in the media. Reuters reported some sheets were folded into paper airplanes and launched into the test rooms.
Bihar's education minister, Prashant Kumar Shahi, blames the students' parents.
"You tell us: what can the government do to stop cheating if parents and relatives are not ready to cooperate?" asked Shahi. More than a million students are taking the tests this week.
Some parents say the students are not prepared to take the test because the schools lack qualified teachers. Parents also blame authorities for failing to make adequate arrangements for taking the tests.
The exams are viewed by many as life-changing that could transform the lives of students who have grown up in poverty.
