Cheating is Clichéd
Sumaiya Ahsan Bushra

Cheating- according to the dictionary, the most accurate source of information, is an act where an individual gains or is benefited through dishonest means. Well, taking that very central meaning into consideration and applying it to our daily life, is not a complicated task since it fits the bill of each and every corner of the social norm of a developing nation.

Yes, cheating is everywhere. Be it the rise of an entrepreneur like that in the novel of Aravind Adiga or a personal biography cum social development (commonly known as helping the poor) book by some famous man, dishonesty is omnipresent. But the common place where this cynical and light-weighed word is applicable the most is in a classroom situation. From personal experience, I have a sea of knowledge about this great universal phenomenon.

Cheating has many hideous faces. Cheating by replicating someone else's answer is common. This is an old school belief. No one cares about that anymore these days. The method has proven to be inefficient because there is a huge probability that the person who the cheater is cheating from could be wrong. However, playing Chinese whisper during an examination has been a common practise amongst the silly, slacker students. Some students have mastered this art so well that in a blink of an eye they can produce information orally to the receiver. From their low intonation, it seems as if they are murmuring some ancient verse or practising a spell! I suppose, much thanks goes to the brilliancy of rote-learning technique employed in Bangladesh. Through first hand experience, Emma from a private university says, “There was a girl in my English Culture class who did not know the answers, but her friend helped her out. The ironical bit is that the girl who cheated ended up getting the highest in the class.”

Poor invigilation or when the teacher accidentally misses to ogle the students during an examination, Chinese whisper hits a different note! It reaches the climax, once the invigilator or the teacher is out of the room. Apparently, all of a sudden, everyone becomes a part of this ear to ear.

With the development of technology, cheating through the use of mobile phones has conquered the generation. Now a days, most students cheat during examinations by using their fancy phones. It is pretty easy too; just explain to your teacher that you need to see the time on the cell phone because by some twist of fate you forgot to wear your watch on that particular day. Believe it, but without any disregard to the teachers, most of them are lured by these follies. At times, even if the teacher refuses to allow the students to use a phone, they (students) hide it under the table and start 'googling' the answers as fast as the heart can beat.

Another very different phase is when the teaching assistants (TA), yes, the most loyal servant of the teachers end up helping the students. Happening in almost all private and public universities in Bangladesh, the teaching assistants of some specific subjects facilitate the students to cheat. Either they simply walk up to the students and identify those who are struggling with an answer and help them or they are just asked to help by the students. In minor cases, some of the 'best' students have been a victim than a prey. The teaching assistants have come to their rescue unwarranted and to their (student's) utter surprise were offering them the answers and insisting on fixing the errors. Wanting female attention or gaining female popularity could be one reason for such behaviour from macho male TA's.

Apart from this, some students have also faced the dilemma of being helped by peers or course mates. Even when help is not asked for they were at the receiving end of it. Asma another student of a university says, “This boy in my class was looking at my script from a corner seat. The moment the teacher looked away he started telling me that my mcq's where wrong and that I should fix them.”

To sum up this tragic yet universal relationship between dishonesty and cheating it can be well-said that there is no force that can stop this undying love. No boulder is powerful enough to crush it; no knife is strong enough to cut it and truth is only a frail word that cannot fight it.

DID YOU KNOW?

Steven Spielberg

Film Director Steven Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 18, 1947. He was the oldest and the only son of four children. He was indulged throughout his childhood at home, but he was not treated the same way at school. He displayed little enthusiasm for his studies and made average grades at best. The first film that Spielberg recalled seeing in a movie theatre was The Greatest Show on Earth, a spectacular 1952 circus epic.

As a child, Spielberg began using his family's home movie camera. He started recording camping trips and other family events but soon grew dissatisfied with them. He began to film narrative movies and attempted to set up shots with different angles and primitive special effects. By the time he was twelve years old he actually filmed a movie from a script using a cast of actors. He grew increasingly ambitious and continued to make movies from then on. When Spielberg was sixteen, he filmed a feature-length science fiction movie, which he entitled Firelight. His father rented a local movie theatre to show the film. In one night it made back the $500 it cost to film it. Spielberg's poor grades in high school prevented him from entering the University of Southern California (UCLA), but he was accepted at California State College at Long Beach. He graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in English because California State had no formal film programme. He frequently went to the movies and saw every film that he could. He also flattered and manipulated his way past the guards at Universal Studios and watched major projects being filmed!

Information Source: Internet