Student Perspective: Let’s Stop the Cheating! By Taing Leng If you ask a student one day before their final exam, “Have you reviewed for the exam?”  It is not uncommon to get the reply, “Why should I? I can simply copy from others or the book. The teacher is ‘easy’ and everyone does so.”  Typically, high school students give these kinds of answers. They regard cheating during exams as the norm. There is no feeling of guilt attached to cheating for them. I feel that cheating should be considered as a more serious offence. In my

opinion correcting the behavior of students who cheat should start at a very young age.

Once a person develops a bad habit, it is hard to change. To change their behavior they will need serious guidance. Once a student starts cheating in high school, they will continue cheating at the university. If nobody stops their behavior, they will continue to cheat throughout their entire career and life; cheating themselves, their family and friends, and cheating the country. This kind of behavior is a serious problem, not only for the students themselves but also for the entire society. 

Do we really want a nation of cheaters?  Do you want cheaters as your friend or part of your family?  We Cambodians need to set new standards if we are going to compete in this globalizing world. And, cheaters should not be leading us.

Cheating should be stopped everywhere, especially in high school. School regulations should be strengthened to severely punish cheaters . It should be made impossible for a student to cheat. A student should not even have a chance to peek at somebody else’s paper. Punishing cheaters will not only enlarge the knowledge students’ posses, but it sets moral standards that boost confidence, encourage responsibility, independence, and conscience of the next generation of citizenry.

In contrast to a bad habit, a good habit takes time, commitment, and effort to develop. A person who used to cheat on exams will find it very hard to stop because of three main reasons. First of all, cheaters are not used to studying for exams. Secondly, because they have always cheated, they lack the self confidence to sit and take an exam on their own. The third reason is that when  students sit and take an exam the emphasis is on the result. All that matters to them is getting good grades, no matter what it takes. 

These internal as well as external problems hinder the student in his or her attempt to stop cheating. However, we shouldn’t make any excuses for cheaters and cheating.  I believe that with enough determination and guidance from the school, we can overcome any problems.

Exams should not only be the only tool to measure a student’s knowledge, but it could be used to develop values and standards. Once a student cheats the exam becomes meaningless. In order to put a stop to cheating, we need both the university as well as the student to be committed to end cheating.  If schools implement tough exam regulations, students will change their behavior. So what are we waiting for? Let’s do it all together!