Pakistan News And Discussion-9

Naresh · 01-25-2007, 06:11 AM

[center]By deceitful means <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' />[/center]

Recently, at least three 'research papers', apparently written by leading academicians teaching at institutes of higher learning in the country have mysteriously vanished from websites.

Insiders at these campuses report that respectable scholars have been spotted attempting to hack into websites or else lurking in libraries or record-rooms, furtively removing written material from files. In some cases, the services of students who can slip less obtrusively in and out of public areas have been enlisted for the purpose.

But while these scenes suggest a massive spying racket of some kind may have hit prestigious campuses, the true explanation is far more mundane --and far more unpleasant. Panic over the possibility of plagiarised work being caught is said to be sweeping across institutions. This comes in the wake of reports of blatant plagiarism at the Punjab University, and, most recently, at the prestigious Government College University, where the head of the economics department was ignominiously removed after it was found he had copied the work of a leading Indian economist and presented it as his own.<!--emo& Confused

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Beyond all other more grave factors, the fact that well known, international research presented as an original paper went undetected for long periods of time shows too how uncommon reading is at all levels.

Reports of plagiarism by academic staff have also hit the University of Karachi and Bahauddin Zakariya University. It is said that muffled rumours circulating for months of similar fraud at other, prestigious centres of learning, including the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, are now threatening to surface, with internal inquiries underway in some cases.

What even the small number of instances that have surfaced so far prove, almost beyond doubt, is that such academic malpractice is widespread. Indeed, the opinion by senior staff at some colleges, that it must not be exposed to avoid 'dishonouring' the institution, can only add to suspicions that they themselves are involved, at least tacitly, in the crime.

As similar arguments made in the past, with regard to corruption by political leaders and match fixing in cricket have shown, attempted cover-ups do nothing to solve the problem. These can only be resolved when facts, however unsavoury, are first of all squarely faced.

It goes to the credit of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and its chairman Dr Attaur Rehman that a new, tough stance on plagiarism has been adopted. Certainly, the line taken seems to have caught many academicians and scientists quite unaware --with many having, reportedly, got away with the practice for years or even decades.

The situation is perhaps not surprising --given that dishonesty and a lack of principle seem to exist everywhere in society. From doctors who connive with pharmaceutical firms and surgeons guilty of grotesque ineptness and neglect to tradesmen selling goods of inferior quality, it is quite apparent that the issue is there in most spheres.

It is however still both shocking and saddening to learn that it prevails to this degree in top-notch educational institutions, and that in a number of cases, students have been roped into the plot by their teachers.

The manner in which ethics are constructed in any society is indeed evident early on. Even in their teens, Pakistani school students have been known to make attempts to pass off work downloaded from the Internet as their own, while their counterparts from other nations, doing internships at various private sector organisations, have expressed dismay at their actions. Schoolteachers of course are familiar with the practice, and adept at detecting work taken off the net.

The trend persists at higher level. Students working on dissertations, even for post-graduate degrees, according to academicians, almost invariably depend on regurgitating existing material, the most enterprising among them sometimes taking the trouble to re-write some of it.

Seeping down from the very top, it is thus obvious that the mindsets that lead to plagiarism begins to be set in place early on. But it is also obvious, from the example set by a handful of institutions, that it is possible to combat these attitudes by incorporating a 'zero-tolerance' policy into teaching, setting high standards for students and ensuring academic staff members follow the same rules themselves.

The problem also goes well beyond the issue of plagiarism alone. It is intrinsically linked to the issue of why the country is turning out so much mediocrity. Professionals at senior places within a range of organisations will generally agree that the products of Pakistani universities know little even about their discipline, or are unable to apply it outside the most narrow margins. This is in turn contributing towards the creation of a kind of apartheid, in which the privileged students of a few, local institutions --and those educated abroad --head the queues for internships, jobs and, consequently, career success.

Certainly, today, it is hard to imagine a scientist of the calibre of the late Dr Abdus Salam Khan, educated at public-sector institutions in Pakistan, being produced by a system that has collapsed with quite alarming speed.

The fact that no Pakistani University ranks among the top 500 institutions in the world is now a statistic that has been much bandied around in the media, and by policy-makers. The need now is to look beyond this statistic and examine and ascertain the factors responsible for it.

The 'outing' of plagiarists has exposed the rot that exists within education. To stop it from spreading still further, a start needs to be taken at the lowest educational tiers to create a base to build on.

Merely posting scores of policemen around examination centres, or hauling away those caught cheating to lock-ups, cannot solve the problem. Changing attitudes and belief systems is a far longer-term, and more tedious, process than anything that can be achieved through mere patrolling and policing.

The desire to be original, to encourage creativity, needs to be built in society. By 'teaching' very small children how to 'draw', by holding their hand to chalk out a simple form, instead of allowing them a basic freedom of expression, by encouraging the rote learning of mathematical formulas rather than an understanding of concepts, this ability to think is killed early on. Indeed, many adults dealing with children destroy initiative unknowingly --themselves the products of a system that operates in a set, pre-determined fashion.

If the decay at the highest levels is to be stopped, the process must begin by changing the nature of examinations, by demanding more than rote and by rewarding originality --so that later on, many years down the road towards learning. Habits and values inculcated early on can help produce a generation of competent creators, rather than plagiarists unable to look beyond the thinking of someone else, and passing on the same limitations to those they teach.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

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