Copying in exams doesn’t help students: School principal

“As you know, there are different ways of cheating. The students are searched by the supervisors before entering the exam room for any tools they could use to cheat. Sometimes they don’t find anything, but they eventually find out someone is cheating during the exam,” said Al Azri.

Cheating is more time consuming than actual study, a senior principal of Indian School warned, adding that copying in exams doesn’t help students. “Students will never able to finish their exams if they resort to cheating as it is very time consuming,” the principal said.

Describing the students, a senior teacher in Indian School said some students have a laid-back attitude where they wait for the last minute to study before any examinations. “And when they can’t finish their studies, they resort to cheating.

“Then there are some students who are under too much pressure to excel no matter what. When these students feel they are falling behind, they cheat,” a teacher of Indian School said.

The teacher added: “Replacing written exams or course work with oral assessment may help to stop potentially high levels of cheating by students.”

Supervisors are tasked with collecting mobile phones and any possible “tools” used for cheating before, during and after the exam. If a student is caught, they will be referred to a commit- tee at the Ministry of Education formed to collect and study evidence of cheating to determine the consequences.

Also according to the ministry, some students verbally and physically abuse exam supervisors which results in the complete failure of the exam.

According to the GED Management Law, students who are caught cheating will not be able to view their exam results.

Those who abuse teachers and supervisors will have their grades for the current year erased and referred to the public prosecution for legal procedures according to the Oman Penal Code.

Al Azri advised that cheating is considered a crime according to the religion and by law.

According to the latest data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information, 540,068 students were registered in government schools while 101,860 students were in private schools, not including international schools, for the 2015/16 academic year.

“Among the violations were possession of mobile phones and exam notes which were confiscated, verbal and physical abuse, negligence of exam rules, failure to present identification and refusal of being searched”

“Other violations include ripping off exam papers, failure to adhere to the dress code and impersonating students.”