It's here. It's my country. It's Thailand.
Recently, I've grown a little tired of how the examination period went. There are always cheaters in the room. Ever since I could remember from elementary school, until now in the university. Those cheaters never go away, and I doubt they will.
Somehow it upsets me to see cheating happens all the time in my university. I used to think all of them are smart, at least they all were smart enough to be qualified here. Don't they at least believe in their abilities?
Maybe not. Even if the person who got the highest score entering in my faculty also cheats. And I heard some of them cheated in university entrance exams to get here in Chula. Impossible, isn't it?
But what bugged the most is the teachers, or the proctors, decided not to take any actions against it. They were all ignorant about this, even though they witnessed the cheating process themselves.
Of course, I'm talking about Thai teachers and proctors. No need to mention about Japanese ones because they sure take cheating into an account quite seriously, so no students dare to do it.
Thai people, however, accept that cheating is a part of our nation. It's become acceptable in many ways.
One mid-term result was announced last week. I was really happy with it - got 65/70 in my Japanese literature exam with my own ability. Guess what? One of the cheaters also got the exact same score as mine.
Some of my friends, who obviously are not cheaters, got much less scores than that. She said, along with some others, quite glumly that she's probably stupid enough to be an "honest dumb."
I felt troubled with this. There's not much justice here. It seems there's a high possibility the cheaters will get an A without making any effort while the rest of "good" people get stuck with some other undesirable grades.
It's hard striving to be "good" with morality in this kind of society. It seems pointless to have faith in "goodness" when the bad ones get to take all the glory in the end.
So if you ever wonder why Thailand is one of the countries in the world that ranked top under corruption category, I suppose it's quite obvious we're shaped and prone to this way from an early education.
4 comments:
Sadly I have to agree with you on this one. Having taught English a little in my spare time here I was surprised that my students all got excellent grades in the exam since many of them couldn't utter two words of English.
I later found out that they mostly cheated and one teacher even helped them!
Its a great pity since there are many talented Thai people, a lot of whom because of the way society is ranked never get a good job because the cheaters are too well connected.
You are also right about how the rest of the world views this.
Good luck with your studies I am sure you will succeed on your own merits.
Cheaters only cheat themselves out of knowledge that they have paid for. You on the other hand will succeed and be confident in the knowledge you have learned and been tested on.
The test isn't designed to see what you know but what you don't know so you know where you need improvement. Those that cheat will never know and will be at a disadvantage to you.
A problem affecting, alas, many countries. It leads to a lot of frustration, especially in places where you see all this coming from all directions but make no mistake: the real value of education and skills will be appreciated in the right environment. It will be up to you, then, to choose.
RDC
Very honest post. I would say, at risk, of being lumped in with the cheating folk, that many situations in life involve some kind of cheating, as sad as that may be.
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