Cheating is wrong! Let’s stand for the truth

By Joe Babendreier
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Former Minister for Education Prof Sam Ongeri shows a slipper that was was used by a student to cheat in an exam. Is cheating wrong? We hardly need to ask. Why would cheating become so wide spread that it becomes a national epidemic? PHOTO | FILE  

Summary

• If lots of people are cheating and getting what they want by cheating, you will be left behind. All your talents will go to waste. 
• To know just how much harm cheating causes, one could invoke the Ten Commandments, especially the one that tells us that it’s wrong to lie. If God says it’s wrong, it must be wrong.

These days, it is practically a sign of weakness to insist on being honest.Kenya has been rocked by allegation of students cheating on exams. Some teachers and officials have profited by showing them how to do it. Cheating on exams is a form of lying. If I cheat, I claim that I know the material. Even though I know I am not prepared, I try to convince others that I am. 

Is cheating wrong? We hardly need to ask. Why would cheating become so wide spread that it becomes a national epidemic? What is the pressing need driving both teachers and students to engage in something they would naturally be ashamed of? 

It must be part of the culture of corruption. It goes hand in hand with the general conviction that we can get rich quick as long as we’re willing to do something wrong. These days, it almost doesn’t matter if you get caught.

These days, it is practically a sign of weakness to insist on being honest. If lots of people are cheating and getting what they want by cheating, you will be left behind. All your talents will go to waste. 

DARKNESS OF FALSEHOODS

It should be obvious, without being told, that adultery, stealing and cheating cause enormous harm. But we get lazy. We begin to think that drunkenness, adultery and corruption are not so bad after all. If all manner of evil practices become commonplace, how can we convince students that cheating is wrong?

To know just how much harm cheating causes, one could invoke the Ten Commandments, especially the one that tells us that it’s wrong to lie. If God says it’s wrong, it must be wrong. Perhaps at times we need revelation from above. We need to hear God command: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. 

Still, it should be obvious. If you need to build a building and you have to choose an engineer, do you want the one who cheated on exams or the one who really knows how to do the design? If you have cancer and you need a tumour removed, do you want the doctor who cheated on exams or the one who really knows surgery? 

Saint Augustine, the greatest of African bishops, once wrote: “We can speak the truth, but we can also lie. Although we are bound to speak the truth, still we have it in our power to lie whenever we will. But far be it from us to think that the darkness of falsehood could be found in the splendour of the divine light.” 

Many Kenyans reject the culture of corruption and the culture of cheating. With our example and our patience, we can lead others back to respect for telling the truth.