THE resignation of the HEC’s executive director over charges of plagiarism should act as a wake-up call to the education department, the government and academics at all levels.

The education official was alleged to have lifted large chunks of his research paper from a foreign researcher’s work. Currently, the department is investigating similar charges against two other senior officials.

Some have argued that the rot took root in HEC in 2002 when it was decided that the salaries and promotions of university professors would be rewarded on the basis of how many research papers they published.

Though perhaps a well-meaning move, in this effort to increase the number of PhDs in the country it seems to have ‘incentivised’ dishonest practices on the part of some.

Nepotism and political appointments in public-sector universities is another widely acknowledged malaise. Younger teachers who come into the profession with a certain idealism and passion for their subject are confronted with the ugly reality of incompetency in the status quo.

All this negatively affects the quality of teaching, and thus the next generation of students and professionals. Pressed for time, with looming word counts to fulfil, students, too, plagiarise, copy-pasting text from the internet, with few teachers making the effort to check.

While the standardised use of plagiarism-detecting software can limit the stealing of words, it cannot catch the theft of ideas, achieved through paraphrasing.

Students, who may genuinely lack awareness of scholarly ethics, may question the value and rhetoric of ‘merit’, especially when confronted with the reality of profound inequalities that exist both within and outside campuses.

One can even argue that original or innovative thought is not encouraged in traditional learning setups from the very beginning when curiosity and speech are stifled.

After all, the menace of plagiarism isn’t just limited to academia; it can be found in journalism, the arts and other fields.

It’s time the theft of intellectual property be seen as the serious offence it is.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2018

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