Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1297939/treat-exam-cheats-firmly-and-consistently
Comment/ Opinion

Treat exam cheats firmly - and consistently

A female student from Modern College attends a press conference after HKEAA reduced the punishment to her plagiarism. Photo: David Wong

Cheating in examinations cannot be tolerated. It defeats the purpose of fair performance assessments and is an injustice to those who achieve through genuine effort. That is why severe punishment is needed as a deterrent. Nonetheless, there are students who cannot resist the temptation. To uphold fairness and integrity, the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority has rightly adopted a tough stance against acts of dishonesty.

But doubts were raised over the way the authority handled students caught for plagiarism in an assessment project for the Diploma of Secondary Education this year. Modern College invalided the scores of three students after they were found to have copied from the internet without citation. The score made up one-fifth of the grade. The incident prompted the authority to conduct random checks and another 23 students were caught. The students said the teacher had told them citation was not needed. But the school denied responsibility, saying it lacked resources to verify their work.