Fes - Many teachers, including myself, curse the situation and the causes that have resulted in this bitter reality because of the damage to Morocco’s reputation. Teachers are concerned about the future generations of students who will suffer from our present decisions, rather apathy, concerning the matter.
It is emotionally disturbing for me to see young students willing to cheat, proud of defying the regulations, and considering cheating a mark of manhood. They use technology and social websites to cooperate and exchange ideas to develop new methods of cheating.
During my years studying in high school, students, who resorted to cheating, were scared to brag about the phenomenon and they engaged in it secretly, although their parents castigated their children if they discovered them cheating. Unfortunately students now use their phones to communicate with people outside the classrooms to obtain answers to exam questions, and apparently their conscience is clear.
The crux of the problem is that teachers tolerate students who go unpunished when they are caught cheating, thinking that we are helping them by doing so, but the bitter reality is we contribute to the degradation of our society. The result is crystal clear: cheating has become pervasive in Morocco, and it is difficult to stop.
When teachers are asked about the phenomenon, they say that they are not protected from revenge attacks of some students.
During this year’s baccalaureate exam, for example, a colleague of mine was strict in supervising students during the exam and thwarted several attempts to use phones by cheaters. At the end of the session, three parents objected to her efforts to prevent cheating and aggressively insulted her. She did not file a complaint, however, because she was sure that nothing would be done by the school authorities to protect her and address the conduct and allegations of the parents.
Last year another colleague was physically attacked near Marjane supermarket in Fez, simply because she did her job of proctoring students during the national exam. There are many unreported cases of verbal as well as physical violent attacks on teachers, manifesting that cheating has become acceptable, and even considered a right, thereby destroying the integrity of our students and undermining a mindset of fairness in learning.
Students blame teachers for being accomplices in cheating. When I gave a warning to a student I caught endeavoring to use his mobile phone during the national exam this year, he countered that teachers are to blame as well as the educational system.“We do not have access to quality education, and teachers have made us lose confidence in ourselves beginning in sixth grade in primary school; they wrote the exam answers on the board and we copied them during the final exams.”
Nobody is happy about what is going on in classrooms in Morocco. Moroccans aspire to bringing up a generation of students who are able to assume responsibilities and move Morocco forward. This will not happen in an environment in which cheating is the norm and those who oppose it are castigated subject to violence.
Change is doable when we are really desirous of achieving it, have a plan to execute it, and are willing to sacrifice for it. It should suffice that as individuals each one of us follows the rules and regulations to destroy the vicious circle and that we stand united when the rules are being broken by cheaters. Tolerating bad practices and corruption simply allows more room for proliferation of corruption. Change starts at home. We have to believe in the rules and regulations and ensure that everybody is accountable and nobody is above the law.
Edited by Elisabeth Myers
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