Social discourse on exam cheating

Prompt: Social discourse on exam cheating

Social discourse on exam cheating
 

I. Outline of Social Discourse on Exam Cheating (Standard)

II. Sample Essay of Social Discourse on Exam Cheating (Standard)

'High school grades and university entrance scores can be bought', a statement that once sparked outrage on social media for its perceived arrogance from a young woman, is now not merely a sensational phrase. In reality, the phenomenon of cheating in exams is increasingly widespread and openly evolving.

Cheating in exams involves the use of paper materials, 'floats,' or sophisticated electronic devices such as earpieces, pocket computers, etc., to cheat during the exam. This violation occurs frequently, especially in exams for subjects learned by rote or important exams such as final exams, university entrance exams, etc.

Exam cheating ranges from small to large scale. Students, at least once during their schooling, fail to grasp a lesson and resort to opening books or searching online to copy answers into their exams to avoid failing grades. In schools, cheating can be seen from tiny cheat sheets hidden in trash cans, in desk drawers after each exam, appearing more frequently after subjects requiring diligence and patience like Literature, History, Geography, etc. Students do not hesitate to collaborate, share materials, exchange answers, remind each other of answers, and even take advantage of teachers' oversight to change exam papers. This 'smart' and cunning behavior of students seems to have become a habit, with dozens of candidates in a test room, invigilators find it difficult to control the situation entirely to provide appropriate penalties.

More sophisticated and organized cheating activities involve the use of advanced technological devices. 'Super earpieces' are designed very small, connected to external systems to remind questions and provide direct answers that invigilators find very difficult to detect. Prior to the 2018 National High School Graduation Exam, the Political Security Protection and Hanoi Police Force apprehended a suspect selling over 40 sets of ultra-small earpieces intended for candidates who wanted to cheat. Therefore, cheating in exams is not only bought and sold like a commodity, but also executed in a sophisticated and organized manner. In addition, during the two recent National High School Graduation Exams, the whole country was shocked to discover a series of cheating cases, elevating scores for candidates with family connections, and even top students of Pedagogy in 2019 had their scores raised by up to 19 points. Not to mention the countless provinces such as Hoa Binh, Ha Giang, Son La with dizzying rates of candidates having their scores raised, many of whom have enrolled in prestigious schools under the Ministry of Public Security, the military, medical schools, etc.

The root cause of this situation stems from various aspects. For students, ultimately cheating is just to get high grades, avoiding parental scolding. Thus, invisible parents impose the burden of grades on their children, poor grades synonymous with stupidity, laziness rather than considering a process of effort and improvement. Consequently, parents tend to buy grades for their children to enter selective specialized schools, boosting family prestige. Teachers, due to teaching pressure, schools due to entrance pressure,... create a cheating system to ensure the facade, the glittering appearance with high fake scores.

Some argue that cheating is due to the students themselves, being lazy, indulging in play, spending study time playing video games, chatting with friends, only wanting grades to maintain. While this opinion is true, it seems insufficient, because a child cannot develop bad habits, finding ways to evade rules if living in a clean environment, not threatened by punishment when having poor grades, but instead receiving encouragement, assistance to improve grades.

This overt cheating phenomenon in exams is an alarm bell about the deceitful nature of an entire system from schools, students, and parents. Students accustomed to cheating, cheating become dependent, their thinking stagnates, laziness prevails, only thinking about cheating without focusing on studying. Families chase after the race for grades, wasting money on something 'famous but empty.' The core issue is when cheating becomes a habit, students completely lack fundamental knowledge to apply in life, high grades on the transcript are impressive but fundamentally empty. Instead of being filled with knowledge during the learning process, they master bad habits like cheating, deceit,... Schools consequently have no solution to compensate for the knowledge gap for students when semester exam scores do not reflect the true essence. Universities with students admitted through cheating not only suffer reputational damage but also cannot control the process of educating future graduates.

Cheating is a bad behavior, cheating in exams is an expression of emptiness and lack of firmness in the educational foundation. To have a generation capable of self-reliance for the national destiny, individual students changing alone are not enough, there needs to be an impact from both the family in nurturing, forming honest, pure characters for children and schools in encouraging them not to emphasize grades but to focus on the quality of knowledge. Students need to understand that grades are not important, what's important is what they have in hand to contribute to society using the valuable knowledge they have acquired.

The era of globalization and development will not tolerate any form of cheating to achieve success. Without effective punitive measures, society will inevitably isolate and expel individuals and organizations engaging in deceitful behavior in education and work. As the future generation of the nation, we all need to cultivate integrity, reject exam fraud, and collaborate in building a clean, civilized learning environment.

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In addition to the essay Social discourse on cheating in exams, students can also explore: Social discourse on the phenomenon of school violence, Social discourse: The prevalence of students disliking History as a subject, Social discourse on the culture of indulgence and competitiveness among contemporary students, Social discourse on the phenomenon of students excessively addicted to electronic games to understand the current realities and challenges within educational institutions.