Shocked to read in news - Students made to wear cardboard boxes over heads during exams in a bid to discourage cheating ?
WHY DO CHILDREN COPY?
To understand this better, we conducted a survey to identify: Why do children copy?
The top answer was parents will scold if we get fewer marks.
Other responses were
- I feel ashamed to get fewer marks than my friends.
- It’s a lot of fun.
- Had problems in the family didn’t get time to study etc.
What I am sharing may sound UTOPIAN however we did this.
· We had identified INTEGRITY as the 21 at century employability skills.
· Had a series of focused discussions with parents, teachers, and students.
Questions to Parents - What would you accept? Your child scoring a few marks more by copying or what they score on their own?
Questions to Students- How many marks can you manage by copying?
Since there is a lot of pressure during exam time they replied - a few marks.
Teachers introspected- We scold students for low marks which has to be stopped by us.
We also conducted brainstorming on
1. Marks for society or for me / my child/ my student
2. My performance from yesterday to today and today to tomorrow
3. No comparison with boss’s child, neighbour’s child, siblings child’s marks
Outcome- INVIGILATOR FREE EXAMS at Mahindra World School.
While answering a question from a colleague as a speaker at IIT MADRAS - I asked, ‘with invigilators what’s the percentage of copying in your schools?’
Honest Reply ranged from 8 to 22%
I again asked, ‘without invigilators if copying is 8 to 10% in my school due to moving population each year who take time to adjust to a new system I feel it’s worth a try’
My students, parents, and teachers would love to speak at length about this experience of invigilator free exams at the school.
We tried and succeeded and that’s history.
I WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT IN REPLICATING THIS FOR ANY SCHOOLS WHO WOULD LIKE TO TRY INVIGILATOR FREE EXAMS FOR THEIR SCHOOL.
Comments