Cheating in exams symptom of corrupt mentality

Cheating in exams symptom of corrupt mentality

By Mochtar Buchori

JAKARTA (JP): One small news item slipped by amid the barrage
of daily news on the hunt for alleged communist "provocateurs"
following the recent riots here.

This was the news about 1,405 students who were caught
cheating in the recent entrance tests for state universities.

Those caught cheating constitute just a tiny fraction, 0.39
percent, of the total number of 357,452 students. To me, however,
the problem is not merely quantitative, but qualitative, a
problem of character and morality.

Cheating happens not only in school exams. It is committed in
other, more serious spheres of life. Corruption and collusion are
other forms of cheating. Lying is also cheating. And abuse of
power, especially the power of the state, is a very serious and
dangerous form of cheating.

What is cheating?

The general meaning of cheating is "to act dishonestly" or "to
commit fraud". Cheating in an exam and committing corruption or
disseminating false information are all dishonest acts. It is no
coincidence to me that during a time when corruption is rampant
in society, and lying is considered "in the line of duty"-- that
exams are also affected.

There was a time when cheating in school was considered such a
shameful act that those caught were immediately expelled. But
that time seems to be gone.

Cheating is considered by many students an art, and a sport.
Cheating is seen as the art of beating the system. The smarter
you are, the more daring your fraud, and the bigger the system
that you are trying to beat. Thus Eddy Tansil is considered much
smarter and more daring than those who just steal millions of
rupiah from their offices. The latter are just corrupt officials.

The question is how to deal with the problem. To turn a blind
eye on such practices is certainly wrong; it is illegal, and
unethical. Yet to fight such practices is hard. Just look at
those crusaders against corruption in Italy, Mexico, Columbia,
and Bolivia. They became martyrs. Only in South Korea have
attempts to fight corruption achieved a degree of success.

Does that mean, then, that the fight against cheating is
hopeless?

I don't think so. The trick is, I think, that we should not
treat cheating only as a general moral issue. Every type of
cheating is an institutionalized act of dishonesty. Each has its
own institutional base and context. Cheating in school is
different to cheating in domestic affairs or cheating in
business. Thus if we want to wage a serious fight against
cheating, corruption, and abuse of power, we have to take each of
these dishonest acts separately, and devise a separate strategy
for combating each one of them.

Cheating in entrance exams by hiring jockeys is based on the
assumption that everything can be bought in Indonesia. Those who
commit the same crime without the help of jockeys think -- this
is just what I suspect -- that cheating is harmless, and does not
constitute a transgression against anything.

It is different from stealing money. If you get caught while
cheating in an exam, well, it is just bad luck! If you get away
with it, and pass the exam, it is good luck! Life is a matter of
luck. Life is a gamble anyway. Such is the view of those who
cheat in exams.

How can we prevent our children from thinking like this?

In addition to those classical prescriptions about implanting
morality in our children's minds, additional measures are
necessary.

We must make our children learn the following things:
-- studying can be fun.
-- studying is rewarding.
-- the purpose of studying is not to pass an exam, but to acquire
knowledge which is then tested. Thus passing an exam should be
considered a byproduct of learning, not its main aim.

This looks simple, but is not. Especially if we have to deal
with children whose family life is not conducive to learning or
studying.

Inculcating such views about school life and developing
attitudes based on such views requires a big dose of educational
innovation. The tradition in almost all schools has been to study
for grades, to study for diplomas, to study for academic degrees.
Changing from these traditional views to new views where grades,
diplomas, and degrees are treated as byproducts means
revolutionizing traditional practices in schools.

This will be very difficult, but it is not impossible. It can
be done. And even if we only partially succeed, the reward will
be big enough. The reward will be the gradual shift from studying
based on nominal motives to studying based on intrinsic motives,
on the need to satisfy a thirst for new knowledge.

Seen within the context of existing educational paradigms this
is a revolutionary change. It is this kind of motivation that
makes people keep studying even after the period of formal
education is over. It is this kind of motivation that makes
people demand new information, new knowledge, and new wisdom.
This mentality is the antidote to the corrupt mentality at the
base of every form of cheating.

The big question is whether we have enough educators in our
schools who can still see clearly the historical assignment they
have to shoulder: helping their students become a new generation
of Indonesians who love learning and abhor cheats.

The writer is an observer of social and cultural affairs.