Cheating can be defined as a deceiving and misleading practice or acting dishonestly on any kind of work or purpose. Cheating has been a very old practice done by students since decades. Cheating is never considered a good practice by people as it is against moral values and ethics. Today students cheat by using many sources. MP3 players can be used to save answers to questions. Mobile phones can be used to search answers on the web. Moreover, students can also buy assignments and projects from the internet. They can also use crib notes and can hide papers on which answers are already written. Another form of cheating is copying someone else’s work mostly from the internet which is called plagiarism.
The trend of cheating is rising, and almost 51 percent of high school students admitted that they cheated on a test during last year. This information was found after a survey conducted on 23,000 high school students (Ehrlich & Fu, 2013). There are many reasons behind cheating. Students cheat because they want to please their parents and teachers from their good work and grades. They do not want to make parents unhappy. Competition is another reason of cheating among students. Today courses are very tough, and students found themselves stuck in many works, so they achieve services of others to do their tasks. Students cheat to find the mean of ease. Students today have to cheat because they found themselves surrounded by many distractions. They have to engage in extracurricular activities, hook up with friends and spend time with family. Today students are so much pressurized that there is no other way except to cheat.
Cheating can be justified on the basis that state education boards demand high achievements from students. The burden of high grades is put on Students in a way that they have to cheat to defend. The unfair burden placed by educational institutions make cheating practice justified in eyes of students.
Study has become very tough, and this is also an important reason of cheating. Students have less time to do their term papers, so they plagiarize. Sometimes the exams also go beyond the course and students cheat to overcome this difficulty. That is the reason that every one out of three students justifies cheating in these circumstances. According to a study done by the university of Missouri, 36 percent of students responded that cheating is ok in certain cases (Martindale, 2013).
Incompetent teachers are also a reason for cheating in school and colleges. Teachers do not teach students fairly. Therefore, they lose interest in learning. Moreover, cheating is not harmful to anyone, and it can also help a friend in need.
In a survey conducted by Santa Clara University, a student said that cheating is okay if the teacher is cruel and does not pay attention to students (Schulman, 2014). 15% students said that they found the work meaningless. Students are blamed for cheating, but cheating behavior is a result of the teacher’s ignorance. Teachers do not take care of this fact that some students need their attention more. They simply ignore them which lead to cheating behaviors by students. Teachers should not just appreciate brilliant students of the class, but they should also encourage weak students.
Works Cited
Ehrlich Thomas and Fu Ernestine.Cheating in schools and Colleges: What to do about it.2013. Forbes. Web. 19 May. 2014.http://www.forbes.com/sites/ehrlichfu/2013/08/22/cheating-in-schools-and-colleges/
Martindale, Scott. 1 in 3 Students say cheating can be justified. Orange County Register. 2013. Web. 20 May. 2014.http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cheating-295332-students-study.html
Schulman, Miriam. Cheating Themselves. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Santa Clara University. Web. 20 May. 2014.http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v9n1/cheating.html
