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February 9, 2006
Low trust culture
If I cast my mind to when I was back in school, and that was a few decades back, the sanctity of the education system was still quite intact, I can remember the refrain of ‘cheater-cock’ used as the ultimate admonishment between students. In those days we studied driven by a thirst for new discoveries, and not much for passing our exams. That is something which happened automatically, though the burning of the midnight oil in the days leading up to the exam had a special excitement all of its own.
I am sure the silent majority of students today are motivated by the same reasons as we were. Unfortunately, the exceptions to the rule tend to draw more attention, which in a way is good for it ensures that the exceptions stay the exception, and do not become the rule. However, given all the attention and concern that has been brought to bear upon this issue of using unfair means to pass the exams, it almost appears that the exception has become the rule, and our youth has lost sight of the greater objective. Or has it?
Let us remember that a system only requires circumvention if it has stopped performing its originally intended function. In the case of education in Pakistan, the politicization of academia has been a major concern for as long as one can remember. The spirit of inquiry and critical thinking have been sacrificed at the altar of ideology and indoctrination, and the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of broadening mental horizons is now a rare happening given the loss of ‘missionary zeal’ within educators.
If indeed the use of unfair means has become rampant, then the student is the last person who should be held responsible. When a person cheats it is his or her way of casting a vote of no confidence in a system that has failed to inspire and educate. It is a display of zero respect for the teacher in whose charge the student has remained. Just as our jails make hardened criminals out of first time offenders instead of reforming them, so also does the educational system, specially in the government sector, process young and impressionable minds in a manner that alienates them from education and society, and under peer pressure to ‘succeed’ the students resort to any means to achieve the stereotype bench-marks.
Teachers have morphed into an uninspiring class lacking the grand vision of educationists, and driven solely by prospects of commercial gain with no notion of the nobility and higher purpose of the teaching profession. The syllabus is uninspiring, the course material badly put together, and the emphasis is on rote learning. Under these circumstances the examination system loses it validity and high moral ground. The net effect on the student is an abhorrence of the class-room that can often include an abusive teacher. Society in general is to be blamed for this dismal state of affairs that threatens to unravel the very fabric of society.
The fact that the various education boards and the Pakistan Law Commission have had to address the issue of cheating in depth and great detail, and that, too, in writing, points to the existence of a very low trust culture indeed between the student and the teacher. Behaviour that is consistent with a gentleman and an officer can never be codified, and must be imbibed through personal example of the teacher.
The Commission on National Education (1959), better known as the Shareef Report, recognized the centrality of the human factor and the impact of individual attitudes in shaping the development of higher education and society. “…. We cannot escape the conclusion that our fundamental need is for a revolution in attitudes through which the cynicism, lethargy, opportunism, suspicion, dishonesty and indifference that have characterized the outlook of so many of our people and officials in the past will give way to a spirit of individual initiative, personal integrity, pride in accomplishment, trust in one’s fellow men, and a ‘private sense of public duty’. We have no illusion that this reorientation of values can be brought about quickly or completely, or that it can be realized only through fiat, yet come it must if we are to achieve any substantial improvement in our education system or any other sphere of human endeavour…”. This was stated 47 years ago. Every word still holds true.
| KU VC speaks out |
| Talking about the impact of cheating and
use of unfair means in examinations, Prof Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddqiui,
Vice-Chancellor, University of Karachi, says that the unhealthy activity
produces multiple effects, including dejection and unrest among those who
have worked hard towards their studies, promotion of incompetent students,
injustice with merit and consequential negative impact on the career of
accomplished students. All these factors contribute the uncertainty about
the utility of education in society. He says that holding of male college students' degree examinations on the campus was one of the measures taken by the university to curtail cheating and KU has constituted vigilance and scrutiny committees during different examinations. "The modern system of education and employment, availability of the state-of-the-art technical facilities cannot accommodate inefficient and unproductive students," he adds. –– M.A. |
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