"The fraudster's greatest liability is the certainty that the fraud is too clever to be detected."
Louis J. Freeh
Learners who commit fraud during the conduct of examinations or misrepresent their results are often learners that one would not expect to do so. In essence, they either do not see their actions as fraudulent or problematic in any way, or they believe that their behaviour is justified.
Learners must understand that certain strategies are in place during the conduct of examinations or tests for a reason and the activities these strategies attempt to curtail is because they are fraudulent.
For example:
Copying in an examination or a test is fraud insofar as a learner is taking another person's work and passing it off as their own;
Using crib notes or the assistance of a cellphone (internet etc.) is fraud insofar as the learner is giving him/herself additional assistance to what their fellow classmates have access to;
Accessing information about what is in an examination or test beforehand through inappropriate means, e.g. a learner gains access to an examination paper from a WhatsApp group is fraud insofar as s/he has prior knowledge about the examination content which others do not.
In essence the gaining of an advantage over classmates through means that are not a direct result of a learner's own knowledge and understanding can be labelled as fraud. A learner who participates in any of these activities is committing fraud.
It is our duty as teachers to understand why examination fraud happens and assist learners to understand the phenomenon and its consequences. One of the highest causes of examination fraud is pressure – pressure caused by parents, teachers or simply a learner's own anxiety to do well. Teachers and parents should be mindful of the very detrimental impact of unnecessary pressure.
Learners need to be confident that they have been well-taught and have had ample opportunity to prepare for the examination. They need to have support from their parents, family and others that are close to them that whatever happens, they are still loved and valued for the people they are. Learners who realise that they have the resources and the support they require, have no need to cheat. And even then, if something doesn't work out as one might want, there is always a second or third chance.
A 'pressure cooker' environment surrounding examination results is extremely toxic for learners. Schools that sell themselves purely on the basis of examination results may well be undermining their real strength as an educational institution – confident, purposeful, rounded and well-adjusted learners who are properly taught but see themselves as more than their academics. This surely is the ultimate goal of a successful educational institution. Our citizenry needs people who are the best they can be in whatever it is that they do after they leave schooling.
Parents knowingly or unknowingly create a stressful environment by laying unrealistic expectations or providing 'motivations' – some call it bribes – as a mechanism to 'encourage' the learner. This pressure is the worst kind for many learners. Parents must be mindful that they are often the primary reason for unmanageable pressure on their children. Parental encouragement is essential but more important is their emotional support for their child – appreciation and love for the child for who they are rather than what they achieve.
Upfront I must say that within the IEB, there are a very limited number of incidents of examination fraud. The educational institutions and the learners we work with are very conscious of the dangers of examination fraud and the consequences should anyone be found to have participated in fraudulent activity.
The IEB has a number of strategies in place to protect the integrity of the examination process. These include an electronic security system for the transport and safe-keeping of examination material; it includes thorough training of invigilators as well as the adoption of an audio-visual monitoring system to monitor the conduct of examinations in real-time. These strategies have proved very effective not only in preventing examination fraud but in providing evidence when possible fraudulent behaviour has taken place. Strict consequences for participating in fraudulent activity are in place. These include withdrawing results of a learner, excluding a learner from participating in any examinations for a set period of time, reporting to law enforcement authorities as appropriate.
Recently the incidences of unethical behaviour have moved away from the traditional methods of cheating e.g., copying, bringing unauthorised material into the examination venue, to the manipulation of examination results.
A typical event of this nature plays out as follows:
A learner gets the SMS of their results at midnight on the date of release from the IEB;
The learner then sees that s/he got 68% for Mathematics and the parents wanted 80% or above;
The learner forwards the SMS to their parents but changes the 68% to 88%;
On collecting the formal provisional results from the school, s/he very carefully 'turns' the 6 to an 8; and everyone is very happy.
On the date of registration at university, the learner and parents are told that the learner does not qualify for the course they have enrolled for because the Mathematics result is not good enough;
The parents query it and are told that the Mathematics mark is actually 68%;
A huge hullabaloo follows – the parent loses his/her cool with the university personnel, saying they have made an error; they go to the school and accuse the school and the IEB of incompetence etc.
The school and the IEB then clarify what the true mark of the learner is.
It is essential that learners understand that fraudulent behaviour will be detected at some point and especially on enrolment at tertiary institutions because tertiary institutions get a download of the IEB results directly from the IEB. Even if they enrol at universities outside South Africa, most tertiary institutions verify the results they are given with the IEB. The key purpose of that download or the request for verification is to detect mis-representation of results and take action accordingly.
This kind of deceit has other consequences insofar as the closing date for remarks has closed and possibly even the date for registration to rewrite the subject.
More importantly the reputation of the child has been badly damaged; the relationship of trust between the learner and his/her parents has been badly damaged; the learner’s record at the school has been tarnished and hence any testimonial or reference that the school may provide is negatively affected. All in all, this behaviour is not a good idea.
The consequences for examination fraud are constantly updated in an effort to protect the integrity of the IEB results. Educational institutions are encouraged to have an honesty code or code of ethics that outlines what they expect from their learners in this area. It should not only include the behaviour of the learner but also their responsibility to report any knowledge they may have or may discover that the integrity of an examination has been compromised.
In a world where fraud and corruption appears to continue unabated, it is our social responsibility to protect trust in our examinations and our results so that our system becomes a beacon of integrity and credibility.