CBSE conducted a series of surprise inspections in December last year at 29 schools in Delhi, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Bihar, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh to check enrolment of ‘dummy’ students.
Scores of students preparing for engineering and medical entrance exams prefer to take admission to dummy schools so that they can focus solely on their preparations for the competitive exams. They do not attend classes and straightaway appear in the board exams.
Aspirants also choose dummy schools keeping in mind the quota in medical and engineering institutes available for the students from certain states. For example, the candidates who have completed classes 11 and 12 in Delhi are considered for admission to the medical colleges of the national capital under the Delhi State Quota.
Meanwhile, in Kota, posters of different dummy schools along with their rates are splashed across the city. Dummy schools charge different rates depending on the boards they are affiliated with.
With the number of suicides among competitive exam aspirants in Kota hitting a record high this year, experts have warned against the concept of “dummy schools”, saying students staying away from regular schools early often struggle with restricted personality development and growth.