KARACHI:
The chief purpose of examinations is to determine the extent to which a student has learned the contents of a course or syllabus. Therefore, cheating in exams ruins the very purpose of conducting them in the first place.
Unfortunately, a large number of students in Pakistan resort to cheating in order to pass or achieve higher grades without having to study. What these naive students don’t realise is that by undermining the importance of exams, they will not be able to achieve much in the real world, when such knowledge and skills are actually put to the test. Owing to an outdated syllabus and lack of professional teachers, the situation has aggravated to such an extent that a cheating culture has emerged. Now students boast about cheating, rather than feel as if they have done something wrong. Such values play a critical or in this case a rather destructive role in their future. Most children who tend to cheat are more inclined to take short-cuts later on in their life. As a result, their individual as well as societal growth stagnates after a certain point.
Our educational policy makers need to take this issue very seriously if they want to improve the quality of education in the country, without which development and growth isn’t possible. Our government, education ministers and other concerned authorities are fully aware of the deteriorating education standards across the country, yet they fail to act. Apart from investing in education, we need better and effective educational policies in order to bring about change.
Seema Shakeel
Turbat
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2021.
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