According to educators at US and European universities, academic dishonesty is on the rise.
In 1994, an anti-corruption policy was announced on the eve of Cambodia's national examinations for primary and secondary-school students. The minister posted guards at doors and windows of test sites and gave students coded numbers to put on their answer sheets instead of their names. Furthermore, teachers could not grade papers of students they knew. Just 4 percent of the teenagers taking the exams to leave secondary school received passing grades, compared with 70 percent the previous year.
The pressures to cheat are great. The shrinking and ever more competitive job market is breeding an excel-at-all-costs mentality. But this must be overcome. Everyone should have an equal chance to succeed in life, and no one must be permitted to abuse this privilege. This is particularly true of academic life because academic achievement has a substantial impact upon career opportunities later in life. Academic achievement must parallel true self-achievement, that is to say through honest hard work. Qualified but deserving students and employees are worth their weight in gold to the employer, to the economy, and to society.