Education authorities will look into reports of academic dishonesty—cheating—as it implements the distance learning system.
Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said as much during a news briefing. He said this is not allowed “because it won’t help in teaching honesty among students.”
But are students alone guilty of academic dishonesty?
Academic dishonesty, academic misconduct, academic fraud, and academic integrity are related concepts that refer to various actions on the part of students that go against the expected norms of a school, university, or other learning institution.
What could cause academic fraud? They include peer pressure, performance anxiety, excuse-making, inability to manage the demands of student life, situations that encourage academic dishonesty, self-justification habits, unfamiliarity with what constitutes academic dishonesty and lack of understanding about consequences.
But academic dishonesty refers as well to committing or contributing to dishonest acts by those engaged in teaching, learning, research, and related academic activities, and it applies not just to students, but to everyone in the academic environment.
And here San Antonio is on the right track when he said DepEd is also looking into reports on teachers giving and selling answers to the exercises in learning modules.
He calculatingly added DepEd is not allowing this “and of course those who are proven to engage in this activity, especially my fellow teachers, will face administrative cases.” But he stopped short of giving flesh to what would be the administrative cases.
We are watching what DepEd would do, persuaded as we are that San Antonio’s statements were not to accompany a photo opportunity.
We will have our eyes for an informed judgment—in fairness to the suspects, both students and teachers. And let the guilty be suitably sanctioned.