by Wayne Clist

Created on: June 28, 2009

Is it that cheating is more pervasive today than it used to be or is it just that it is perhaps more readily looked for today than it used to be. Since exams began, kids have always cheated at them but the technology they now have at their disposal is much more powerful. This gives rise to looking at the competitive nature of todays society as a whole and the requirement for children to be seen to be the best they can be, not only for themselves in terms of their position in their peer group but also for schools, who are reliant on exam results for good reports and league positions and for their parents who are perhaps keeping up with the neighbors and workmates.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with engendering a competitive nature in children, it prepares them for the wider competition of the modern workplace, however it is when they are taught to win at all costs that it perhaps give cause for concern. The biggest reason for the prevalence of cheating at exams is the anxiety faced by pupils concerned about their future employment prospects and their standing in their peer group. The modern curriculum puts much stock in exam result as does the modern workplace so should it come as a surprise when students are caught cheating at exams to get ahead?

The modern working world puts great stock in winners and the winner take all mentality. The employees that are seen as the best are the ones that win. Whether that is winning sales, contracts, awards, etc the competition began at school continues in employment. The employees that win are often the ones that are paid the most; therefore winning in later life is associated with greater monetary reward and in todays society monetary worth is seen as the yardstick by which we are all measured.

Modern technology makes it much easier to cheat than it used to be. Easy access to the Internet ensures that questions deemed difficult are revised without difficulty, exams requiring creative writing or passages of text are plagiarized, there are even websites offering to write coursework for pupils. Also, modern mobile camera phones are often the tool of choice for the discerning cheat of today - photo snaps of screen shots, text messaged question and answers, even Internet searches all make it considerably easier for the pupil who wishes to cheat. It also makes it much more difficult for teachers to detect.

The combination of competitive standing and the wider social and psychological implications of poor results all combine to make cheating at exams a necessary evil in the eyes of some pupils. The reward for failure at the very least is a lower standing in their peer group and at the most, the loss of a place into the University of their choosing with the implication being that in the salary driven culture of todays workplace, poor results ultimately will mean a dead end job. Anxiety arising from both of the above reasons will ensure that until society loses it's over competitive nature and the idolizing of the winner and winner takes all mentality, children will continue cheating at exams.

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