Plagiarism, the practice of taking someone else’s work or information and passing them off as your own, is not only unethical but has consequences too. This practice is not uncommon among students, however educators are against this vice noting that it is a hindrance against academic success. According to them, effects can be serious during school and after, and that these can range from personal concerns to academic dents in one’s educational journey. According to Jean Baptiste Habyarimana, the headmaster of Groupe Scholaire Kagugu Catholique, this vice is considered as a negative practice due to its effects it has on one’s creativity. “When students are not taking their time to sit and work on their assignments, the zeal of creativity and innovation is lost because they are not training their minds to brainstorm and find out new ideas,” he comments, citing that it is a dangerous threat to the Rwandan education system whose core value is creativity and innovation. He also adds that it diminishes trust between the instructor and the student. “Those kinds of students also develop less genuine relationships with instructors. Once an instructor finds out that a student has carried out activities involving academic dishonesty, he becomes more critical going forward,” he notes, adding that it takes time for the student to regain trust from their educator. “Similar to personal relationships, when you violate the trust of peers or teachers, it takes a lot of time and effort to overcome the negative effects.” For Christian Ishimwe, a teacher in Kigali, these activities which include academic dishonesty are addictive, because they are rarely done once. “Cheating is usually not a one-time thing. Once they are not caught, youth may find it easier to continue cheating more often, and this affects their studies because they do not gain anything at all,” he comments. Ishimwe is of the view that this kind of academic dishonesty also affects other situations of life, claiming that students who cheat lose an element of personal integrity that is difficult to recapture and that it goes on to mess with their whole life. On the other hand, Irankunda Habinshuti, a learning assistant at Kepler University says that though the person cheating may be successful, they are missing out on the real relevance of the information. “Let’s say you get away with cheating, do you think you will retain the information cheated or plagiarised? No. We are in an education system that builds on previous information, and cheating will make it difficult to understand concepts presented before and after,” he affirms. He is of the view that it leads to lagging behind which will make it even more tempting to cheat, and what was considered as a short-term solution can definitely have long-term repercussions.
