The rotten education system and copying in the exam have seriously harmed the majority of students' mindsets. This has had a negative impact on individual development and, as a result, social and national health, leading to various undesirable behaviours in their lives.
No nation can consider growth without the participation of all segments of society. The development of a country occurs in the right direction when its citizens, particularly its youths, develop themselves on these ten points: Truth, Glory, Knowledge of Scriptures and Science, Learning, Nobility, Modesty, Strength, Wealth, Valour, and Eloquence.
These principles can only be taught during one's growing years in school to develop a strong personal character as part of one's internal environment. Society and government are part of the external environment, which influences people's behaviour and contributes to social evils. There are numerous social ills; however, I will concentrate on the root cause of these ills ignored in society.
The best environment for a child to grow up in is in school. The child is willing to shape themselves according to what the teachers and society decide. If they get the proper guidance, approach, and perspective, they will undoubtedly become the best version of themselves. However, the rotten education system and copying in the exam have seriously harmed the majority of students' mindsets. This has had a negative impact on individual development and, as a result, social and national health, leading to various undesirable behaviours in their lives. The attitude and culture that has developed in many schools and teachers' mindset to achieve a perfect score and 100% result by allowing copying in exams.
How does copying in an exam affect a child's mental health?
The weak mind always takes the shortest path, which means that it has a natural tendency to avoid any hard work or work that requires intellectual and mental effort. When a school or teacher allows copying in an exam, it automatically creates a mindset among students that there are illegal ways to complete any work without exerting any effort.
This already has a negative impact on their academic performance, as they lose confidence, avoid higher education and develop a tendency to seek the shortest path to resolving any problems in life. The teacher serves as a role model for each student, and if the same teacher, whether consciously or unconsciously, allows copying in an exam, it makes the lives of students miserable and destroys the great Guru-Shishya parampara (Mentor- disciple tradition). As a result, many teachers fail to fulfil their responsibility of teaching appropriately.
The consequences of this weak and wrong mindset are that it develops a slavery mentality, fear of even calculated risk, seeks government jobs because they see them as jobs with no responsibility and accountability and earning through bribes and wrong means, loses fighting spirit and when faced with problems in life, becomes addicted to drugs, becomes a part of many social evils, and negatively affects mental health, causing depression, anxiety, and developing suicidal tendencies. This type of character development is detrimental to a country's socio-economic growth. This pessimistic attitude leads them to believe that nothing good can be done for society and the country, and even when some organisations and individuals work sincerely to make good things happen, they question the integrity and doubt everything good in society.
If we are serious about developing our future generations with strong personal and national identities. We really need to make a significant change in the educational system and guide and assist teachers in putting an end to the scourge of exam copying. It will take time, but it is not impossible.
Another negative trend is that the attitude and mentality that many teachers have developed over the years is resisting the new education policy required to overhaul the entire education system to grow future generations positively. Many teachers believe they will be required to change their teaching methods and be held accountable, which should have been standard practice in schools or as part of the educational system since independence. Only a character with the necessary education can be attained if the teaching methodology includes permutations and combinations of the ten points listed above based on the needs of a subject and topic.
Salute to the teachers and schools that do not allow students to copy in exams and the many students who do not copy in exams despite being in such an environment. NGO's, spiritual, social, and cultural organisations that fight social evils and injustice must focus on this critical root cause. Any action that does not address the root cause is pointless. The majority of social issues will be resolved if exam copying is prohibited and each educational institution implements national education policy sincerely and within a reasonable timeframe. Government enacting laws or policies with large sums of money will not change much on the ground unless each section of society and related organisations work together to make it happen.
