Cheating no short cut to success
Rani Lukita, Contributor, Jakarta
While educators around the world have been waging war against cheating since the birth of education itself, it seems highly likely that its total eradication is a long way off.
Just how serious a problem, however, is cheating?
A survey reported by Reuters has shown that more than half of all British students have cheated in exams. Last year in Phnom Penh, near riots broke out at two bookstores that claimed to have the answers to the senior high school final tests.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, cheating in school and college final examinations has become so widespread that students react violently at not being allowed to continue doing so.
How about students in Indonesia? Unfortunately, there is no accurate data on cheating, although anecdotal evidence (kids owning up to it) indicates it is as widespread as in the rest of the world.
All students interviewed by The Jakarta Post admitted that they had cheated at least once in exams during their school years. They braved the risk of getting lower marks or even being expelled from school should they have been caught by their teachers.
"I wanted good grades, and I was too lazy to study. Hence, I was unprepared for the tests. At first I felt guilty of cheating but after my 50th or so time, I was like, 'Ah, who cares!'," said Angga "Bejat" (his nickname itself means corrupt)
Dr. Paul Suparno of Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta described cheating in Indonesia as an epidemic. He was quoted in the Kompas daily as saying that cheating occurs "not only up to senior high school, but also in the universities".
This claim was backed up by an English Literature professor at Universitas Nasional in South Jakarta, Prof. Lie Hua. He admits to having encountered cheating, and also plagiarism, "very often."
First, though, we must define what cheating is. Cheating is a form of academic dishonesty. The Student Handbook of UC Santa Barbara includes borrowing a friend's work, altering it and then submitting it as one's own; buying a term paper from a "paper mill" (usually from the Internet); and copying from a textbook without acknowledging the source, as cheating.
Prof. Lie described cheating as, "Trying to get information illegally or in a way that's against the regulations, for exams and assignments."
Many reasons, or perhaps excuses, are behind countless cheating incidents. Prof. Lie claimed that students who were forced to attend university by their parents were likely to become lazy and cheat to keep up with their work.
The principal of the Jakarta International School, Bruce Leiper, said students cheated because "they wanted to do well, to succeed and to get the best marks possible even by inappropriate behavior. The second reason is to avoid the trouble or embarrassment of receiving, for example, an F on a test."
Students, however, offer other reasons. Among them, the belief that cheating is the only way to get good grades, and also insufficient time to complete a set task.
What is the effect of cheating on the perpetrators in the long run? Will their academic "short cuts" catch up with them later on?
Nobody has ever revealed whether success or failure has resulted from their unscrupulous behavior.
Of course, it is a personal affair, a battle between the haloed angel and the horned devil in your mind. So when you allow the angel to throw the devil out of your mind, it's a good sign that you will win the upcoming battles on your way to maturity.