The first time I cheated in elementary school, I thought, ‘this is easy’; the second time my teacher gave me a completely different test – he knew – and I was trapped. My mother was horrified and punished me with no TV for a week, I had to make my own dinner, and was given no pocket money for a month. Lots of kids like me went through this ‘lesson’.

Cheating results in serious consequences in the world outside education. For example, managers and leaders who fake qualifications and lack the ability to deal with the true needs of their communities, engineers and technicians who don’t study properly so infrastructure projects fail or are sub-standard, or business and government revenues suffer as people ‘skip’ procedures and pay for ‘short cuts’.

The other disturbing consequence is the act of the ‘cover-up’ – schools producing clearly impossible pass rates or hotel department managers claiming highly improbable success rates for their staff. The more the training and educational achievement data gets distorted, the harder it becomes to plan and budget for educational development.

In Australia, we have quite strict rules for examinations with strong forms of punishment. However this is not the only form of assessment, and learning is designed to develop confidence in showing skills and knowledge regardless of the form of examination. By constantly assessing and teaching students to adapt and use their education in many different ways, one major exam doesn’t play such a big part in the final marks.

As a boy I remember our regular teachers would conduct spelling, writing and comprehension tests, but our big tests were overseen by a teacher from another class. Through the years the tests became harder and stricter, no referring to notes or textbooks, and the questions more formal with a wider variety of ways to answer.

Among these, gap questions, ‘close’ quizzes, hypothesis questions (eg: if Simon has three eggs and Frank has two…) and then essays – both persuasive and opinionative. Penalties, even as kids, were harsh – detention, informing our parents and the dreaded ‘talk with the headmaster’. By high school, these included deductions from your marks for cheating or copying – plagiarism could even lead to school expulsion – and our teachers know all the texts very well. The rules were and still are strict: no talking, chatting or disruptive behavior during examinations – use a mobile phone and you’re out! No bags or extra papers, and the teachers used to check our sleeves and hands for notes on our skin!

The rules, the same as for the ‘Higher School Certificate’, at Grade 12, were very strict. Exam papers were under guard and only delivered to exam centers one or two days before the tests. Each center has a senior teacher or department officer to oversee the staff on the day.

Teachers from other schools or middle-aged people with responsible jobs were paid to be observers and conductors of the exams. All bags were guarded outside the exam room and each student was checked, once they sat down, for materials on the tables. If you cheated, your paper was cancelled and you were escorted from the room immediately, the same if you passed notes or chatted with other students. I remember one girl at university screaming as she was dragged from the room for calling a friend on her phone! She wasn’t allowed to sit the exam again for another year!

In recent years, with mobile phones, iPads and other technology, it’s become even stricter. Like in an airplane, all phones off, in a bag and not in the room. While some allow phones in your pocket, to prevent theft, it’s up to a $400 fine if you are caught using a phone, or even having it switched on, during university exams in Australia!

These rules are publicly available to read on all university websites and students are required to read them. You often sign a form saying that you are aware of the rules before you can sit for your exam. Students can protest later on but it’s rare for them to win the case, as both the observer and officer of the exam write reports as well. Some universities now use video cameras to confirm cheating in exams.

In Australia, my teachers often taught, ‘the only person you cheat is yourself’ – you lose the opportunities… cheating only gets you so far in life. There’s always a point where you WILL have to prove yourself. And then what will you do?

A student takes materials into an exam room for plagiarism during the high school graduation exam in Luc Nam School in Bac Giang northern province (Photo: Tuoi Tre)