“When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.” Khaled Hosseini,

The Kite Runner

I choose to begin this piece of writing with the very apt words of Khaled Hosseini, just to emphasise that ‘cheating’ is not something which we can simply close our eyes to and overlook, rendering it as an unimportant issue. It is theft, a crime and it is certainly wrong, morally and ethically, in all spheres and aspects.

Narrowing it down, I talk about cheating in exams, the form of cheating all of us can relate to. It must be agreed that even if we

aren’t all guilty of cheating in exams, we have, at some point, witnessed it and at times allowed it to happen without speaking against it.

For me, this is the sad part, turning a blind eye towards cheating and not speaking against it because either we are afraid to do so, or more likely we have accepted it as a norm.

First, let us sum up the reasons for why students cheat. I am using the word ‘cheat’ so we can realise that this is what we do and using softer expressions such as ‘the use of unfair means’ or ‘copying someone else’s work’ takes away the graveness of the action we commit.

We all know that every student has different intellectual capabilities and varying interests, and not everyone can excel at every subject or in every graded test. Peer pressure, pressure from teachers and parents alike, the demands and expectations to do the very best and score the highest, are some of the leading factors which compel students to cheat.

The fact that everyone wishes to be ‘the best’ and finds everything wrong with being the ‘second best’ has destroyed a lot of minds and tonnes of potential.

A faulty system

“I would prefer even to fail with honour than to win by cheating.”Sophocles

Another thing, which drives students towards cheating, is our educational system. Yes, our pathetic educational system still emphasises on rote learning, constantly valuing quantity over quality, and thereby not only demeaning the individuality and creativity of a student, but also pressurising them to memorise and cram. It eventually lead to students turning to cheating as a way out as it is not always possible to retain so much information.

However, across the world, rote learning has been shunned and most institutions are focussing more on an individual’s mental capabilities than forcing the students to rote learn an outdated curriculum.

Cheating never stops

“The more people rationalise cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.”Stephen Covey

Cheating is seen in the negative light and no aspect of it brings out any good. Yet, instead of shunning the culture of cheating and trying to find the causes and remove them in the first place in order to have a fair system, this culture keeps growing.

Each time during examinations, we hear the news of officials visiting the examination centres and catching students red-handed. The question is, if this stops these students and others from cheating again in exams? But no, the cheating continues and it means students are brought up in a way that they don’t have the understanding of right and wrong acts.

This is where the parents and other adults, such as teachers, come into the picture. It is their responsibility, as adults and guardians, to guide children to be aware of what actions are right and what are wrong, and that actions have consequences too.

The role of parents

Cheating in exams has been going on everywhere and for a very long time, but I still remember when I was in primary school, students hardly used cheating methods to pass the exams.

Students then were ‘afraid’ of cheating. They thought of it as a crime and those caught red-handed in the class in tests or exams were considered to be the dullest. And for a long time after being caught doing such a shameful deed, they were looked down upon by teachers and shunned by fellow students. This alone was enough to make them feel guilty and they would then rely on their own hard work and not indulge in unfair means to get marks. Parents were also always concerned about children’s behaviour and studies. They would ask them how they did in exams or tests, and always kept a check on their activities and the kind of friends they hung out with.

Unfortunately, now everyone seems too pressed for time, even parents. TV, smart phones and internet have taken over most of the family time that was once spent sharing and doing things together. Now there is less parental supervision and children do whatever pleases them. Whether they study or not, children find a way to pass the exams. It is saddening.

Cheating has become an art!

“Cheating in school is a form of self-deception. We go to school to learn. We cheat ourselves when we coast on the efforts and scholarship of someone else.”James E. Faust

What disturbs me most is that ‘cheating’ is viewed as an art, rather than a sin. Cheaters boast of their techniques to cheat, while those who do not cheat are looked down upon as cowards without a spine.

But if we say that students prefer to cheat rather than study, we shouldn’t put all the blame for this on their shoulders alone. The fact is, anyone who cheats does so because they are allowed to do so and even get away with it most of the time. This is happening because we are not taking adequate measures to stop it.

The culture of cheating is strengthening as we turn a blind eye towards it. I have been a victim of it while growing up, as peers always commented that I didn’t need to cheat because I earn a good score anyways. Little do they know how it feels when a person who cheated ends up having a better score than you or someone else who actually studied for it day and night!

It is a sad fact that instead of taking this issue seriously, all of us, including the teachers, authorities, parents and we, the students, talk about it and forget it the next moment. Forgetting the issue doesn’t mean it wasn’t significant, the issue has been present and will be here because nobody is trying to do anything for it.

We create jokes and memes out of it, and in doing so we have not just been a part of the propaganda which encourages cheating, but have also denied ourselves the right to a fair system.

“Education is intended to encourage fairness and ethical behaviours such as honesty. It is unethical to feel pride during or after cheating on assignments and exams instead of guilt.”Karen Avetissyan

I will end with a question that we all need to reflect upon. What can we do to combat this issue? If we keep putting it on the back burner, then we will be producing a society of individuals who are the fruits of this system, and therefore the cycle will never end.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 4th, 2017