The Reasons Why Student Cheat (author piece)

Cheating in exam is a serious academic crime that each and every student must not commit in his or her study life. It is the act of misbehave, dishonest and disrespectful that cannot be accepted. Thus, this act must not be allowed in academic place not just in Cambodian but every country in the world.

However, students in Cambodia still cheat in exam. Of course, there are many factors involved in student cheating but mainly “poor guidance and weak system of Cambodia education institutions” are the key factors to look at.

Poor guidance from the teacher makes students having a poor study performance. Students might not study hard or do their reading because their instructors pay less attention on them. At the end of the day, they know nothing that they have learnt during class. As a result, they took the exam with a blind thought and knowledge. Thus, they have to fight for survival; in that case, they can do everything to pass the exam.

Teachers need to guide their student about the social understanding. So far, good grade is a part of social pressure to students in Cambodian society because students believe that good grades can help them find a good job or a good university. Thus, students may just too obsess only with their grades. As a result, Student can do anything for their grade; in that case, they even cheat and corrupt in exams. Although grades are very important for each and every student, it does not mean that students need to cheat in order to get good grades. 

The ministry of education, the head of education sector in country, plays a major role in tracking and providing good educational products to students. But if the ministry was weak and corrupted, it would affect to the students. Thus, student may no longer obey nor respect the upper level. As a result, student might not follow the rules or regulations of the school, and they simply cheat in exam.

The openness of exam instructors during exam is also a part of weak education system in Cambodia as well. Of course, the main root of cheating in exam comes from students and teachers as the exam instructors. Teachers want money while students strive for passing exam and getting good grade. Teachers allow student to cheat by taking bribe because he or she does not have enough money to support themselves and their family. Currently, Cambodian state high school teachers only receive salaries of about $100 per month. With this amount of money, most of Cambodian teachers find it very difficult to support their family as the Cambodian Independent Civil Servants Association (CICA) said on strike for higher payment.

Recently, Cambodia government has been doing many actions on eliminating cheating in national exam. However, government’s action toward the acts of eliminate the cheating in national exam are not wise way to both students and the nation itself. If the policies are strictly implemented, the number of failing students will be estimated increasing. High school will be overpopulated of students from both current students and repeat-class students. At the same time, universities, which were encouraged by government in order to develop human resource in Cambodia, will face crisis of lacking of students.

Moreover, students who fail the exam might feel demotivated and discourage to get back to study; as a result, they just drop their studies and do farming or labor works, or even immigrant to other countries, or they might commit crimes at worst. When it comes to ASEAN economic integration in 2015, Cambodia will probably not be able to compete with regional countries in term of skill work. In short, the government actions toward the act of eliminating cheating in exam are effective enough to strengthen the education system in Cambodia.

However, the policies from the government are somehow effective to eliminate cheating, still there are many better ways to eliminate cheating in national exam.

First, the quality of teacher as the study guide and the study instructor has to be improved. Teacher is the one who look after and improve student’s performance. They play an important role to sharpen student’s performance and to adjust their fault as well. If the student’s performance is good, student might not cheat in exam. Therefore, students need good teacher who can pay more attention to them. Thus, if Cambodia wants good teachers, Cambodia has to invest more on teacher resources in country. Teacher has to be well selected and they have to be qualified. In addition, Teacher’s salary has to increase, and not but salary, but government also has to provide high pension and other insurances such as health insurance.

Along with the increase of salary, pension and insurance to teacher, punishment for an inappropriate act of teacher also has to be done as well. For teachers, who have done inappropriate things such as corrupting and taking bribe by allowing student to cheat in exam, have to face the serious punishment by facing the legal acts from the government.

Moreover, ability of student needs to be prioritized. Having good grade and passing exam do not mean that student’s ability is good enough and acceptable. Thus, teachers need to encourage student to study hard by following good discipline, not to cheat, in order to be good resource for country.  University should not require high grade for enrollment, university need to set a rule that students need to take enrollment exam in order to get into university.