This Wednesday, I had probably the most depressing day of teaching yet. Near the end of each month teachers administer monthly tests. Each teacher puts together their own test, and it seems mostly to consist of activities directly out of the book, meaning they are activities students have already completed in class and have the answers to. For example, the grade ten exam had a paragraph where students had to circle the correct verb form, a crossword the answers to which came from filling in the blanks in sentences and all of which were vocabulary words, a section of sentences with the words scrambled, and a word search. Students did not understand the concept of the crossword, and many could not even copy the words of the scrambled sentences correctly. Some could not do the word search so they just wrote some words next to it that they remembered from the past month. The word search was from the unit on going to the market, so it contained words like cabbage and vegetables. Official and manager were not in the crossword and yet I had several tests all in a row with those words written in.
Which brings me to the real reason I had such a horrible day. Usually I excuse myself for monthly tests. I have heard horror stories about the cheating that goes on and I know I cannot just stand by and watch students cheat, but it is very ingrained into students that there is pressure to get the correct answers at any cost. I am not really sure why because I don’t think students fail a grade ever, and their grades do not determine University acceptance. Somehow I ended up getting wrangled into watching students during a monthly test while my co-teacher ran to grab some papers for me. Before I could really argue he basically tossed the tests to the students and they began. As the tests were being passed around I asked everyone to put away their text books. The students either did not understand me or were shocked that I would ask them to do this, so they did not. I had to go around and physically touch each book that was sitting on the students’ desks and motion for them to put the books away. The students were still talking though, and I assume they were chatting about the test. I asked them repeatedly to be quiet, as they were taking a test, until finally I raised my voice which always gets results since Khmer teachers rarely do it. Plus most of the students are terrified of me anyway. I cannot imagine why.
The students were finally quiet but kept blatantly looking at each others’ papers and copying answers! One boy was turned all the way around in his desk scanning the paper behind him to get the answers. I asked him what he was doing. He did not respond. I asked him why he was cheating. He did not respond. I told him to turn around (he was still facing the students behind him). He did not move. I demonstrated that I wanted him to rotate his body and look only AT HIS OWN TEST. He turned around but looked completely confused.
There were two girls sitting next to each other who were blatantly copying. I kept walking by and tapping on the desk and telling them to stop, but after about 30 seconds they would return to copying. I finally stood directly in front of them, watching them take their tests. They stopped cheating for maybe a minute, and then kept cheating! I slammed my hand down on the desk and said, “What are you doing?! I am standing in front of you because you are cheating. STOP CHEATING!” I left at the end of the hour, my first of the day, and told my co-teacher I had a migraine and needed to go home.
I am sure some of my students just don’t understand what I am saying, but I am pretty sure they get the gist of the fact that I want them to not cheat on their tests. I would like for them to not cheat, but I don’t know if I have the energy to explain that they need to not cheat and that if I catch them I will rip up their test in front of the whole class. And possibly call them names. There are so many problems with the Cambodian educational system, cheating being just one of them, that I feel like I just don’t have the energy to change things. Also, even if I can convince my students that cheating is wrong and they should have personal integrity and want to achieve good grades of their own accord, cheating happens all the way through the system, even on national exams. So if they aren’t cheating are they at a disadvantage to the rest of the students who are? In the long run am I hurting their chances of scoring high enough on the national exam to qualify for a university scholarship since the rest of the students in the country are cheating their pants off? I am about ready to throw in the towel on the whole teaching thing today, and just run my own class with only the students who can understand me… if only that were possible.
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