(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Cheating in college exams is rampant in Oman gender of the candidates notwithstanding say teachers and student counsellors and feel that counselling besides other preventive measures can help check the practice.
Students are now being aided by technology. There have been many cases where students have been caught using Bluetooth devices mobile phones and headphones to cheat in exams. These are besides the regular mechanisms used like sign language hiding material inside clothing notes written on parts of the body or heading to the toilet to refer to notes hidden there. In this respect girls are as guilty as the boys they add.
'Some students don't admit to it. To prove them wrong teachers seek the help of an invigilator and are backed by a witness. But there are also those who admit to cheating and are willing to face the punishment' said Dr Suhaila al Hashemi assistant professor department of management in the College of Economics and Political Science Sultan Qaboos University (SQU).
Students found guilty stand being awarded a zero in the paper or are referred to the disciplinary committee. In some cases they may be suspended from the course they have enrolled for said Dr Suhaila added.
The fear of failure is the prime reason why most students cheat according to Dr Maha Abdal al Majeed Jawid al Ani a senior student counsellor at SQU. 'That is the first and foremost motivation for students who resort to illegal means. Those who neglect their studies fall victims to this. There are other reasons also like lack of desire to study dislike or hate for a particular subject or subjects insufficient time allotted to answer the questions existence of opportunities to cheat lack of close supervision discrimination by some teachers and administration lack of knowledge about retribution the quality of questions and cut-throat competition among students' Dr Maha added.
Cultural factors too play a part she said. 'Prevalence of a culture that glorifies fraud and love for adventure also make certain students resort to illegal means to score high marks.'
A senior faculty member from the Nizwa College of Technology too said that cheating continues despite several stringent measures being in place.
'These steps include deploying two invigilators in each examination hall and installing CCTV cameras in some. Every hall has 20 students. The distance between seats is kept sufficiently safe and IDs are scrutinised thoroughly to keep out proxy writers' said Professor Prem Anand from the college's English department.
He said the most common way of cheating was looking into another candidate's answer sheet. 'To prevent this the sequence of questions is shuffled and two versions of the paper are distributed among students. Another way of cheating is writing on the table before the exam commences.
'This is tackled by changing the seating arrangement.'
Before exams Sohar University distributes warning letters to students listing the punishments for cheating. 'This is one of the measures we take' said Professor Rajiv Kunapara a senior academician at the university adding that preventive steps are showing results.
Counselling can prevent cheating said Dr Aisha Ajweh a senior faculty member at SQU's student counselling centre. 'Services of the centre should be made available to all students. The centre can educate them on ways to manage exam-related stress. They should be familiarised with rules governing exams. Besides exams should be conducted in a way that they put less pressure on students' she said.
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