Combating cheating
When one talks of plagiarising, one automatically thinks of it as copying of another person’s work with the intention of passing it off as our own without acknowledging the person’s hard work and originality. This is truly a very bad practice. However plagiarising is not just limited to that. A rising problem of concern that is being seen today is student cheating. Students cheat in a number of ways in a number of places. Most often it is done during the various tests and exams the students have. It is a form of self plagiarism if we look at it closely. Students generally bring the answers and solutions to the various questions and problems in the paper with the intention of referring to them during the test or exam with the intention of scoring well. Students mostly do so when they haven’t studied or prepared for the exam but many students do it irrespective of that and do it just to get the best possible score. In a recent survey that was carried out, whose complete findings can be seen on the Theplagiarism.com, over eighty percent of topping students admitted to cheating or self plagiarism at some point of time. They admitted to cheating by bringing solutions and answer to the tests and also admitted to copying from fellow students at times. They attributed this to the need of scoring well in the tests and exams. In another shocking revelation, over ninety percent of teachers, in another survey, admitted to cheating being a serious problem in schools and colleges. Not just that, they said that it a problem that is growing at an alarming rate, one that will turn into an epidemic if not checked and corrected at the earliest or as soon as possible.
A case in point is the incident where a student was caught cheating or indulging in self plagiarism during her test. The teacher was observing all students but noticed that this particular female student kept looking at her hand as she did the test. This thing was seen a number of times before the teacher finally confronted the girl. On checking the girl’s hand the teacher found out that she had written a couple of answers and solutions to the questions in the test. The girl in her defence only said that she had written those answers prior to the test with the intention of remembering them and had simply forgotten to rub them off. However the teacher wasn’t convinced and called for the girl’s parents. What was shocking to the teacher was that the parents refused to believe that their daughter was at fault. They totally believed in her alibi and did not take the teacher’s word when he said that the girl was caught cheating or doing self plagiarism. Most teachers in the above mentioned survey have revealed that while in sixty percent of cases the parents accept their ward’s fault, in the remaining forty percent of cases the parents simply refuse to see the truth and deny it altogether. Because of this general attitude teachers do not wish to bring such matter to light because they only bring these teachers into the spotlight and give them unnecessary publicity which they wish to avoid at all costs.
On another side, almost sixty percent of people said that it is acceptable if students indulge in parent plagiarism, which is if they ask parents for help in assignments and papers. However it is absolutely necessary to combat any sort of cheatings that students do.
