It is high time that we resorted to using our mind and develop our thinking and learning capabilities
KARACHI: The act of cheating kills creativity. Unfortunately, cheating has been ingrained in our society and is thought of as an appreciable skill to have amongst students. The appalling standard of education in Pakistan is one of the main reasons that push students towards cheating. Continuous and persistent cheating leads to dogma, where one is not able to think outside of the box because they rely on the shorter and easier route to try and attain good grades. Our examination papers should be conceptual so that pupils should use their minds and by doing so we might produce creative graduates who use innovate ways to help solve the problems in our society, rather than selfish corporate slaves who work in a brain dead job while owners make millions.
Apart from cheating there is also a culture centered on copying. People tend to copy or plagiarise the work of others off the internet. This too restricts a person from using their own mind and instead they rely on others’ contents for their own work. It seems easier to copy someone else’s idea and act as if it is your own. The problem caused by this is that people tend to prefer such people as the idea they have copied may be the best, however someone who used his own mind to come up with something original is shoved under the rug, even though in the long run it is the latter that will end up developing their skills and making something of himself. It is really surprising that some writers who write letters in different newspapers seem to copy the content of other writers. It is better to write on a different, new and creative topic which shows the world in a different perspective so that there is greater points of view and awareness about all issues. As it is there is a dearth of ideas in the contemporary age and it seems that the young minds have exhausted so they cannot produce anything new. It is high time that we resorted to using our mind and develop our thinking and learning capabilities. This will take time and effort as there are no shortcuts to success, however it will be worth it in the long run.
Faisal Ansar
Published in The Express Tribune, February 5th, 2020.
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