Cheating- a common phenomenon of a student’s life

These days, cheating has become a common phenomenon of a student’s life. Whether it is school or college, a student cheats either by peeping in someone else’s paper or by making chits or by hiding the content in mobile etc. Every student has a different technique of cheating these days. According to the statistics available, more than 75% of college undergraduates had cheated at least once - an all-time high - and 20-30 % regularly.

But the question is that what is the reason behind this cheating of students? Why is it that they find it so hard to clear a paper without peeping in someone else’s paper? A career counsellor and columnist, Usha Albuquerque says, “The learning process suffers in the rush for grades and for degrees from a select set of institutions. The problem in our country is that we are spending too much time chasing marks and degrees. By hook or by crook, ‘I must get that degree’. It’s not so much about what you learn to get that degree.” This shows that how quickly the relevance of ethics is evading from the youth of India.

However, a former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dipanker Gupta, puts forward three main reasons of cheating by people. He says, “People cheat for three reasons; a) they are natural cheats; b) they know they will not be caught; and c) they feel the rule is ridiculous and therefore cheating is justified.”

Besides these, one other major reason of cheating by students is the mindset that the students are developing due to the tough competition and that is ‘I have to get into that college. If I don’t, I’ll destroy my career.’ This thinking leads students to cross all their limits and go to the extent of forging mark sheets and bribing officials. Also, the thinking that money can buy everything and anything is also destroying all the ethics from the younger generation of our country. The former dean of IIM Ahmedabad and president of Foundation for Liberal and Management Education, Pune, Indira J Parikh, says, “We have good rules and regulations but nothing is implemented. So everybody believes that if you have money, you can get away with it.”

Considering these various reasons and the high ratio of cheating among students, something needs to be done to stop such practices of cheating. Students need to realize that they are not the marks that lead to one’s success but the actual learning. In order to stop cheating practices, firstly strong laws are needed to be introduced and implemented. Secondly, parents and teachers should try to reduce the pressure from the students and should try to comfort them and thirdly, some small sessions should be introduced in classrooms to give some lessons on ethics and morals to students.

At the end, Usha Albuquerque says, “Just be open to alternatives. The world doesn’t come to an end if you don’t get into an IIT or an SRCC. Yes, these institutions “open doors” but employers are looking for talent irrespective of where you come from. If you are a good student from any college, you can do just as well.”