Cheating In Exams

Cheating in exams has become so widespread that a high proportion of teachers ( including myself) have started to reflect on their teaching practice with a view to spotting pitfalls and weaknesses.Along the same vein ,they have come to question the educational system as a whole with its myriad components ( human resources , curriculum, test validity…)

It’s a moral issue as well  since it relates to what is known as academic dishonesty.In fact , I think that cheating in exams shares in the general demise of several lofty values that we cherished before but have forsaken now.

Cheating ways have evolved through time . Students have develpped sophistacted tricks ranging from desk notes, calculators to using cell phones messages. And with the advent of the internet , it’s become hard to envisage the magnitude that these tricks could take in the near future. Students put forward several reasons to justify their recourse to cheating .chief among them , Being afraid of failure and getting low grades.In addition to this , they say that they feel overworked ( crammed curriculum) with little time to spare for revision and preparation along with the tests’ level of difficulty that they judge as too challenging.

For some students who bet on cheating in exams, their plans might backfire and they get caught .Yet, the fact that they get penalized doesn’t seem to daunt other students from resorting to cheating in exams.Most of them take risks and think they may cheat and escape unscathed .hence , a holistic approach has to be adopted to curb the onslaught of this phenomenon.This approach has to encompass all the parameters that come into play in the educational setting in terms of tests’ formats and level of difficulty ,curriculum scope, parents and teachers’ role …….