Alright, a friend of mine that works at a private college gave me this picture. What you see here is an example of the cheating habit students have in Oman. These here are called “Barasheem”. Students take their teacher’s notes and copy them in a 10% scale. What they get are these small prints of the notes. I have no idea how they use them, but my friend tells me it is almost a daily thing, so I guess it works great for them.
Barasheem: Students preparing to cheat for an exam at an Omani college
Cheating is a common problem within the Omani educational system. It is common throughout the whole Gulf region. Students (mainly males) cheat their way through school and college – and they wonder why no one wants to hire them! - I mean, what a waste!
Students spend more time trying to find out ways to cheat than anything else. They cheat through phones, watches with tiny screens, tiny papers, writing on their knees..etc. I remember when I was in high school and attending my final exams. There were guys honking on their cars outside our classes… honk honk (question 2) *silence* honk honk honk (answer c)… honk honk honk (question 3) *silence* honk (answer a)…
If you wonder how they got the answers (supposedly, no one can get the questions before the exam starts), well, they get it once the exam starts.. they go to their tutors, get the answers.. and spread them around!
The problem starts in school. There are no harsh measures for those who cheat! In school exams, some students discuss questions with each other and open their books while one teacher helps them out and other.. well, guards the door!
As some one told me one day…
No one studies, we cheat in exams and if we can’t do copy/paste for our papers then we pay some Indians 30 rials to write them for us!
Disappointing!
This is news to me,
My impression was that young people here have very few opportunities to “waste” (or enjoy) their time and might spend more time on their studies.
Or is it that they are just lazy and used to getting things the easy way ?
And apparently, people who insist on various orthodox practics (based on religion /culture) turn a blind eye. Developing the confidence that one can cheat and get away with it has far reaching consequences.
Jacob
There are many people that use religion ethics in the wrong way.
As some religious guys would tell you.. “we cheat on English tests because it is the language of infidels. We should not encourage the use of their language”. Lame ha.. I know!
It upsets me when this happen, I dont understand what a person would benefit from getting an “education” without actually studying for it!
من غشنا فليس منا
I actually used to collect Barasheem that I would find lying around university campus because I was so fascinated by them! The time they waste gathering the info, compressing the size, printing it, cutting the barasheem would probably take longer than actually studying the damn stuff!
The rate of cheating is down in colleges and universities because of strict cheating rules. It used to be bad when I was in university, but now they take phones, bags, and check your hands, abaya (in case you have answers written on masking tape stuck to the inside of it), and make sure you’re not wearing a headset. It’s much better. Any person caught cheating is immediately given a zero on the exam. If you’re caught cheating on a final exam, you fail the entire course. This is probably because of the many Western professors and lecturers.
Schools are still definitely bad. It’s an odd habit in the Middle East, not in Oman only. It’s as if they don’t have enough self confidence to believe they CAN study and CAN get a good grade.
I know that most students cheat in “private” colleges because they are a business and need to survive by having a larger number of students.
But, true… schools are much much worse!
A guy I know in Muscat told me he paid his Tutor in his private college to do all his papers – he was therefore doubly certain of passing .
As you say – what’s surprising is that they are surprised nobody wants to hire them.
The problem then is passed to the organization who might have employed those uneducated people ,
Many many young men do that… pay their way to graduate.
It is sad. What makes it worse is that many of the Gulf people (not Omani’s as much) do the same thing in the US. They pay college students to write papers for them. Sad!
I dont blame those who cheat in some subjects, but not all.
Like Art for an example, they expect us to MEMORISE the meaning of the words colour and paper.
Or PE, they want us to MEMORISE how to KICK a ball. And its not as easy as you might think, there would be 5 or 6 step and easy step is longer than the other.
To be honest, I used to cheat in these subjects, they are useless and I have got better things to do. Maybe you should blame the Ministry of Education.
Glad someone touched upon it. I have noticed that the issue is widespread and its acceptable. The punishments are set but rarely executed, because son of so and so or son of someone who knows so and so.
During my time in Oman, I was asked to answer a simple Fill in the blanks paragraph by a colleague, i did it. Few days later I asked what happened with that piece, he said ‘it was for my nephew, mid term exams’.
Point is, if the parents and senior members of the family are not keen on discouraging such behavior. how might one expect these children NOT to cheat when they reach college/university?
you also mentioned it as a reason for no one hiring them. I don’t think this is the case. from conversations with employers in Oman, UAE and other gulf states, expatriates are reluctant to hire work force because of the issues that may accompany SOME. unfortunately this means that employers generalize and are not giving chances to honest workers. I understand problems to be of punctuality, holidays, eagerness to learn and for some salaries (applies to the UAE- where an information desk operator at the mall makes an equivalent of 2000 RO).
hope that something is made towards eradicating cheating though. good piece!
Parents look for neighbors, friends, family members, etc. to write essays and papers for their children for school. So, I guess … No wonder!
Cheating is widespread around the world, the only difference is that it’s not much of use in the west because exam questions are indirect, require creative thinking or even essay type. You’re even told before the exam what type of questions you’re getting, some even tell you the chapters involved with that type of question. Students end up feeding themselves knowledge and not “books” there.
Sadly here, if a question comes up that isn’t stated in the book word-by-word, a tsunami is yet to happen, from students and their parents!
The answer to no-cheating could be as easy as changing the style of straight-forward questions.
Why don’t the tutors do something? They MUST know this is going on.
I went to University in the South of France. Cheating was a regular occurrence. This frustrated me no end as the weaker students ended up with the same qualification as I did. Luckily I also got a degree from a UK institution.
hello
i beg to differ
females also cheat..
the hide behind the abayas and isnt it haram for anyone to lift and look wats underneath?
all over the world ppl cheat not oman….so dont blame omani lads …
cheers
Hi, females cheat too.. true, just not as much.
Just because cheating is all over the world, it does not make it OKAY to cheat.
and I do blame Omani lads for cheating.. they should have better morals in that sense.
Exresident, keep in mind that Omani girls spend most of their time at home. So, they study more. Meanwhile, guys prefer to spend time with their friends and have the freedom to do just that, and their parents don’t force them to study, so they cheat more.
Very true…
as some of them will tell you.. “We don’t have time to study, we r busy”
I took a course in WCAs for 3 years, and all I’ll say is, even if many of the Omani folks ARE caught cheating, all that happens is nothing. Literally.
The chits are just taken away, the students give a dumb, stupid smile, and thats that. Things just resume as if NOTHING ever happened!!!!!!!!!!!!
=X
I wouldn’t be too worried about Oman. Take a look at how blatantly students from an American Ivy League school cheat: http://higher-ed-reform.blogspot.com/2009/09/cheating-personal-recollection.html
Take home exams are another subject.
I believe the outcome is more important than the actual test itself. Having a take home exam and cheating on it (by spending long hours looking over your textbook or discussing it with your classmates) really is beneficial to students more than harmful. At the end, teachers want the students to learn, and this is one way to do that. Cheating by copying from your class notes and spending 0 amount of time in going over the notes is worse.