“The students that cheat together will graduate together, eh?

”
Written by: Jezreel Madsa

Thus, exclaimed the students—who sought cheating to be a means to escape one’s way out of
examination difficulty. Nowadays, majority of students in various college institutions have been
putting a positive perspective on cheating; as though it were a sort of thing that is helpful and
beneficial to achieve success. In Talisay City College alone, I have noticed that cheating is
rampant throughout every departments and courses. When you stand to be against cheating, the
rest of the band will dislike you and show disapproval to your behavior.

Apparently, cheating has already become a culture of most students back when they were on
secondary level. They sought cheating as a vehicle that enables them to gain higher grades. Say
for example, three students do the studying and then during the exam they will complement each
other—that is, sharing answers to get a higher if not a perfect score. In other words, one has to
supplement answers to those who do not know, and vice versa.

No wonder that these students who conspire together in every examination do not want to be
separated in their seats with each other considering that they cannot lean onto other students for
doing such shameful crime, so to speak.

In my own honest opinion, cheating has been one of the most detrimental factors that dilutes the
level of academic intellectualism of most institutions, in general; and in Talisay City College, in
particular.

As a result, the interest of becoming autonomous in studying has been waning at a fast rate, since
students become more dependent to their "cheat-peers".

On the surface, cheating may well look good since it is beneficial to the students who have the
apathy in studying; it is, however, an act of abject dishonesty and at worst an intellectual
deception. Inasmuch as it goes at loggerheads to the morality set out by God, and is a direct
assault to the policy of the school. Much worst, instructors would fail to assess the true
proficiency or competency of the students given that he or she is already deceived by students
with their pseudo-high-scores.

The menacing consequence of this is best manifested during board exams. The question then that
would be broached: how is it that students fail to pass the Board Examination when during their
class exams they incur higher scores? I submit that the root cause of this ethical malady is the
exercise of cheating. This has to be nipped in the bud before it continues to thrive at the mental
aspect of every student.

On the other side, non-cheaters always reap wonderful benefits from their honesty, be it morally
or academically. They will be trained to become an independent learner. They will be improved
in terms of ethics by virtue of them being honest. Lastly, they will have greater chances to pass
the board exam because they have taken meticulously the lessons they are taught by their
professors.

Finally, considering the problems cheating may have caused us, it is about time to turn ourselves
back to such practice and begin to trust in our potentiality and capability to become a better
student than we are today.