“If our country is to progress, we must maintain high educational standards, and this is only possible if malpractices in examinations are curbed with an iron hand.”
-Supreme Court
Cheating in academics is never the proper way to achieve academic greatness, but it can be an easy way out for any level students. In good old manual days, cheating in schools/colleges was left to hiding notes in odd places or glancing over another student’s shoulder during exams. Teachers were able to catch the cheaters either by visual proof or due to the similarities found in the answer sheets.In yester years, Cheating held consequences but nothing that could ruin an educational future. In today’s world, technology is so advanced that cheating has moved on to a whole other level. For many it has become an easy and assured means of livelihood too. Computers, cell phones, and hand held devices all add to the cheating craze that has swept high school and college level education. Different technologies provide different ways to cheat that make the invigilator’s job to conduct the exams a bit more difficult. That’s why, the Supreme Court suggested harsher punishments for students found cheating in important exams such as the class X and XII.
Why do students cheat?
The educational system is where students learn these tricks and proceed to carry them on into their professional careers and life in general. Not all cheating is done with ill intentions. Students use the internet for research all the time and there are instances that those who cheat are unaware of cheating. Sometimes, students are not prepared to face the exams and do not want to be looked down upon as “losers”, that is when they opt for cheating. Some others do it as “cool” trick they pull on the teachers. But in all the cases, one thing is common that the students who opt for it are somewhere deep down insecure in life. They do not believe in themselves and their unique capabilities. May be no body has ever respected their individual choices earlier. So cheating seems to be an assured way to gain good grades and appreciation from others.
How do students cheat?
These days, internet comes in all kinds of big and small packages and can offer students the opportunity to cheat more accessible. Students often share information via Google. Some students may find information on internet and use it as their own without properly reading it or determining if it is reliable or not. Some students will exchange emails with answers to test or study only those questions which are important or repeatedly revised in the classrooms which is also a kind of cheating.
Consequences of cheating
Students that copy other student’s work are hurting themselves in the long run. The consequences of cheating in exams or while doing home assignments/projects are:
1. Loss of creativity:
Their creativity level drops every time they copy or have someone else do their work. After a while of copying and forging, the student’s ability to think creatively and successfully becomes next to nothing.
2. Loss of responsibility:
Students also begin to lose the sense of responsibility when they have other people do their work. They don’t feel that they have to do anything to pass a class. This creates the feeling that life will always be a handed to them on a silver platter.
3. Lack of sense of Accomplishment:
The students that copy other’s work never get to feel that sense of accomplishment that comes when the project you have been working on is finally complete. They don’t get the uplifting feeling when they receive a good score in the same project because it never was their work. They use other people to receive the score, but they feel nothing. If they never have that feeling, there is nothing to motivate these people to do better the next time around.
4. No gain of knowledge:
People can only learn from the things they do, and if someone else is doing their work, they are never going to learn anything. Making mistakes and learning from them may be one of the most effective methods of learning. For instance, if a student performs extremely poorly on a very important paper, chances are that student will always remember what they did wrong and what would have been better. If people don’t do the work themselves, they can never learn from their mistakes.
Is cheating RIGHT or WRONG?
Not everyone gets caught cheating in life. Many will go on to get good grades on the basis of cheating for a long time in your academic or professional life. But, in the long run, these people will never be able to face the reality that their accomplishments were the result of somebody else’s hard work. So, help your children to choose what is ethically right even if it might be difficult to practice today.
But it will make them creative,responsible and knowledgeable tomorrow.
Encourage them to: Become an Exam Warrior! Say NO to Cheating in India.
