Stop cheating, pay attention to studies

Most students feel nervous about taking exams especially if it’s the first. It’s better for a student to get ready before the real day for the exams comes. One can make the whole experience better by reading hard with great expectations. Presently, candidates completing their primary education lower and upper secondary preparing for their national exams and need to know that cheating will not be part of the exercise as it is totally prohibited. These candidates should remember that no one is perfect; they don’t need to be very perfect to pass exams, the thinking of the need to be perfect brings about cheating of exams in the struggle to make it a success. It is in few instances that you will find students free from cheating and it’s on the other hand surprising that it’s in rare cases that most of the head teachers take a position in building confidence of their students that they should not fear tests and exams. With consistent tests many students feel that teachers give them hard time giving them questions that are too difficult, which makes them think that teachers intend to fail them. The Secretary General of the National Examinations Board John Rutayisire warns students who will be found cheating exams that it will ruin their future. “Students need to read hard and not expect to pass through cheating, once one is caught cheating then he or she will be sure of being punished. Exams are near and students should not wait for cheating so as to pass they should be confident within themselves that they will make it. “Whoever cheats will be punished and those who persuade students to cheat should stop because they disorganise the whole exercise. I encourage students to read their books hard, be disciplined so as to make it at a higher education level” warns Rutayisire. Arnold Nsabimana is one of the teachers who invigilated the pre-mock exams recently at Ecole de Kimisagara and has appreciated the way students conducted themselves during the exams. Nsabimana says that exams were well supervised and that there were no cases of cheating registered. “I believe teachers are doing a great job because we saw no cheating here, students walked in examination rooms with confident and concentrated on their work till the very end” said Nsabimana. However it also happens that pupils cheat in different ways, some write answers on their desks and when answer sheets are given they write them so fast on their answer sheets without the supervisor’s notice. This is common with math and science exams which subjects have formulas to follow. Most times students are sharp the weak ones sit next to those who know plenty of things and can always devise means of copying from that friend. When a sharper friend finishes his/her exam, he/she will sit back and hold his/her answer sheet up so the others behind can clearly see the answers and copy them. Hyacinths Mukantabana the Director of Remera Catholic 1 School in Kimironko says that she is proud of her pupils because no complaints of cheating have been raised in her school. “When students sit for their exams we are sure that there won’t be any kind of cheating we make a thorough check up even among the young ones before they begin exams. Our students are used to doing exams without copying from each other. We do this to build confidence among them” says Mukantabana. She advised primary six candidates before they sit for their pre mock exams to try and change their grades from “F” to “A’ noting that even if they failed to make to the first grade, they should at least strive to make it to ‘B or ‘C’. It is always advised that teachers try their level best to build confidence in the students they teach so as to avoid embarrassments of cheating during examination period. “We advise them not to trust their fellow students they think are brighter because they may fail and lead to more failures from those who would have tried on their own; we however make sure that we help those who fail tests by doing more revision with them not to make similar mistakes in the next test,” Mukantabana remarks. Concorde Iyamenye Habimana a primary five teacher at Remera Catholic 1 says that most of the administrators teach the pupils to stand out for success and to know that they are the best performers once they study and not believe in cheating. Ends