At first I couldn’t believe what I read in a local newspaper. The article concerned an investigation into cheating during examinations. What struck me was the result of the survey — 200 intermediate and high school students were surveyed and 74 percent of them admitted to cheating during exams!
The writer of the article wanted to get the students’ views and asked them why they cheated. One student did admit that his conscience bothered him but he wanted a passing grade no matter what. Another said that he knew the punishment for cheating but didn’t care. A third simply said: Most of my fellow students cheat, so why shouldn’t I? Still another said that his parents had told him that if he saw his friends cheating, then he should follow their example.
Are these students alone in cheating? Are they the only guilty ones? Cheaters in our lives are all too plentiful. So high a percentage of students who cheat reflects only a fraction of the total number — the reality and the genuine figures are much worse than we think.
The problem of cheating is prevalent in our lives to an astonishing degree. It is widespread among students and during each examination season, the warning bells are regularly rung. Usually we look only at what is obvious about cheating. We talk and write about cheating in exams, commercial fraud and cheating with weights and measures — we recite the same moral admonitions to all forms of cheating. What is not right is that we overlook the long-term implications of cheating.
There are various kinds of cheating that seep into almost every part of our lives. On the political level, it is most apparent in the behavior of leaders and authority figures either in power or in the opposition. Leaders who think nothing of misleading their people and abusing their rights. Leaders who practice every kind of deception and treachery in order to achieve their aims. No matter how bad they are or how much they cheat, no one stands up to call them “cheaters” or demand that they be punished.
On the social level, our lives are filled with countless examples of cheating. The father who doesn’t do his duty by his family is cheating them. The teacher who doesn’t take his profession seriously cheats his students. The employee who is absent from duty to take care of his personal business is cheating. We disregard these wrongs and don’t care about them. We are not bothered by such cheating but we respect those who hang onto prestigious jobs and positions through cheating. These cheaters are no different from students who cheat on examinations.
There is no difference between them and between greedy businessmen who never cease to cheat and deceive even if it is at the cost of people’s lives, health and safety. They are all the same. Cheating is cheating. We must now ask ourselves: Why do people cheat and why is the problem here becoming worse? Why are cheaters not deterred by the threat of punishment? And most important, why do cheaters get away? We can only ask our social researchers to busy themselves searching for real solutions to this problem and offer us some realistic possibilities.
Arab News Opinion 5 February 2003
