A letter to the teachers of English: 84How to avoid copying in the examinations? (1) [Archives:2005/840/Education]

Dr..M.N.K.Bose (BOSE@y.net.ye)
Associate Professor of English,
Faculty of Arts, Ibb.
Dear Fellow teachers,

I believe I am touching on a very sensitive issue in this letter. I know well that I might be offending the feelings of some of my fellow teachers and definitely those of some of my student friends. But I am sure what I am going to say in this and the next letter will be appreciated by those who look at the problem in the right perspective.

I thank Hasan Ba-Udan of Hadramut University, who, in his letter to Yemen Times on 4 April 2005, has shared his displeasure about cheating in the exams by school as well as college students in Yemen. He is not alone in this crusade against this malpractice, which is spreading its tentacles over the schools and college in this country: we must do something to stop it before it swallows up the entire education system.

Sometime ago, the Yemen Times also brought out an elaborate story on copying under the title 'cheating' with interesting interviews with teachers, students from schools, from colleges and psychologists. Though most of the respondents have condemned the evil practice of copying, some of the schoolers have, unfortunately, found copying thrilling and lauded the sinful practice. It is a pity that they have been made to believe that copying is the only way to pass out of school.

Let me first of all look at the problem closely. Why do students copy in the examinations? Firstly, the present world is highly competitive and only those who win survive and some of the students resort to copying in order to win. Secondly, the lessons they are taught in the school and college are not relevant and useful to their life and so they do not develop necessary interest in learning them. Thirdly, in most of the schools and colleges, the teaching is so dull and boring that students hardly like to learn anything from the teachers. Fourthly, the examinations are designed in such an uninteresting way that students do not benefit from them and show their abilities in answering the examinations; most of them are routine and ceremonial and so students find it easy to get through them copying. Fifthly, the examinations are conducted in most schools and colleges in such a way that even the good students are tempted to attempt copying and most often succeed. Finally, students often feel that the real merit is not valued at all; those who adopt wrong means to pass always get better marks than those who work hard; either the teachers are not careful about their correction of examination answers or there are unwanted pressures on the teacher to pass students who do not deserve a pass.

Some of these reasons sound genuine and some others are not; but this does not justify copying at all. Some of them are solvable problems as they are created by the teachers or policy makers; if suitable solutions are found to these problems, copying can be completely eliminated from our education system. This is the argument I am putting forward in these letters. In fact, these problems and possible solutions have been the theme of many of my letters in the past, not directly though. Nevertheless, I will discuss them again, though some of you may find the repetition boring; bear with me. I will, in the next few letters, discuss each of these reasons in some detail and suggest solution to each of them; you will see that the solutions are not far fetched and with a bit of determination are achievable. Let's achieve them, Insha Allah.

Yours fraternally,

Dr.M.N.K.Bose
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