Cheating In Schools: Societal Implications Assalamualaikum Wr.Wb.

First of all, let us praise to the Almighty Allah SWT, because of His Blessing we are able to attend this English speech contest. Secondly, may peace be upon the prophet Muhammad Saw who has guided us from the darkness into the brightness. I would also like to say many thanks to the juries who have given me opportunity to deliver an English speech in front of you all. The title of my speech is Cheating In Schools:Societal Implications Brother and sisters Before I deliver my English speech in front of you all , let me tell you a report about cheating problem in many countries. It was reported that a University of Virginia professor found that 122 of his students were cheating on their exams and in their homework. This widespread cheating, while sad, it is not strange to that school or that area. Cheating has become a fact of school life. In California, five of 51 schools are being checked for cheating on achievement tests; at the University of Minnesota, 17 former basketball players have been charged with academic misconduct and their coach may be sued; in Chicago, an eighth-grade class was required to retake a test because of cheating, and a scandal ensued because teachers allowed and facilitated this cheating; in New York, widespread cheating on standardized tests was found; the AP reported on a study that showed that many American high school students lie, cheat, and attend school drunk; in Maryland, a elementary school principal and two teachers have been forced to quit because of cheating; even in Taiwan, President Chen Shui-ban has admitted that he helped his then future wife cheat on a college paper. Cheating on tests for various reasons has become the way of the world. It is one thing to ask why students are cheating, but it is quite another to ask what are the societal implications of academic cheating . Many commentators are stressing that society has placed so much pressure on students to achieve that they are doing anything to live up to the expectations of parents and others. On the other hand, electionconscious politicians are pressing their proposals for testing as a way of determining achievement. Dick Gregory once said that we care more about passing the test than we do about students learning the material. The fact is we have used tests as the sine qua non for determining what a student has learned, and, as a result, the test, although given more importance, has been voided by those who would cheat to pass it.

But cheating goes beyond the mere test. Cheating at the college level has been extended to homework and tests. Plagiarism is one of the main methods of cheating in liberal arts colleges; cheating on tests occurs in courses of mathematics and science. Many college students have a certain blindness that breeds a sort of self-deception. They think they can rightly say what is relevant for the course of study even before they are significantly involved in that course of study. One student, in suggesting why some students cheat, stated that if one is taking a course of study leading to a paralegal certificate, there is very little, if any, relevance an animal anatomy course would have, so you may cheat on it. Of course, a practicing paralegal or a lawyer readily sees the blindness of such an assertion. But this is student reasoning and one of the many rationalizations used to justify a practice that has reached epidemic proportions in school and in society. Too many people will do any easy thing to receive the status of the intelligentsia. But becoming an intellectual, developing the mind, driving away the blindness from ones mind is not an easy task. It is hard work because ignorance is tenacious and also deceptive. The language of academia, Where did you take your degree from? implies intellectual struggle to obliterate tenacious ignorance. The work of a student is to study, and when some are working and others are cheating, that is the fundamental unfairness inherent in cheating. A student or teacher may rationalize cheating with any scheme of reasoning creative students and teachers may use, the fact is, cheating is unfair to other students who do not cheat and are similarly situated with the same intellectual challenges. Furthermore, if a cheating student were tracked from class to other life situations, he or she probably would be shown to resort to cheating whenever it was convenient to achieve an objective. A person who has made a habit of justifying wrongdoing will not or cannot readily change his or her behavior. And, regardless of how one decries cheating or asserts a need for doing it, what a person does is really what a person believes and feels deeply about-- and that is the measure of an individual. One who cheats is a cheater; whether he or she cheats in school or elsewhere. Cheating is a character flaw, but it may be a psychological disorder in some. A cheating student can easily be equated with societal environment who will do anything for a handful of dollars, even at the expense of everyone else. Such individuals are only concerned about themselves. What a student does or does not do may affect all of society, because we are interdependent on each other. No man is an island, we are all a part of this mainhumanityand what diminishes one diminishes us all; what places one in jeopardy places all of us in jeopardy. (John Donne) Therefore, students, teachers, and all of us are involved with humanity, whether we are aware of that fact or not, and we should understand that students are in school to learn the materials, not how to pass a test. If the materials assigned are learned, the test will always be passed. Cheating in school has bred cheating outside of school, and such dishonesty is harmful to the individual who cheats, and it is harmful to societys safety and well being. Brothers and sister

No face is saved by cheating; it is lost. It is wiser, and far more honest, to say I don't know and fail, than to cheat and pass. Im not a good person who never cheated before,but I just want to say,think again about your future,you parent and your hopes, lets try to be a better people,a honest people. I think thats all my speech. Hopefully it will be useful for all of us. Thank you very much for your attention. Wassalammualaikum WR WB