Honesty is the best policy, is that so? Part 2

The word honesty denotes truthfulness, integrity – positive, admirable values. Should this value always be a guiding principle in our lives? A student, several years ago, in responding to the essay topic: Honesty is the best policy, opined that honesty is not always the best policy. She illustrated her answer with the example of examinations. According to her, one will find herself/himself in situations when one has to cheat. If passing an examination well meant that one would get into the best schools, and getting into the best schools would determine one’s successful future, then it would be all right to cheat. She did not examine the consequences that one would likely face if caught. The potential benefit of cheating, to her, far exceeded the costs.

I was reminded of this incident recently when a prominent high school that has been going through a rebuilding phase was in the news, not for the improvements it had made within the environment of the school, not for the successes it had enjoyed over the last few years, but for its role in encouraging students to cheat on the School Based Assessment (SBA) component of one of its Advanced level examinations. Of course, a teacher, not the school has been implicated in this dishonest practice. But, by virtue of the fact that he was attached to the school, the school’s reputation was impugned. Also, the students who sat that particular examination had their grades in that subject cancelled which, no doubt, may have set back some of them in starting studies for the careers that they have chosen for themselves. The teacher, well, his career in teaching is certainly ruined, all unforeseen consequences.

What would have caused this teacher to encourage his students to plagiarise others' work? One answer lies in the pressure to perform. In the past, the school was the premier high school in the country. As a result of what could be deemed poor management, it lost its reputation and status as a school of choice. Over the last five years or so, the school has been in a rebuilding phase under new management and it has achieved remarkable success in the discipline of its students and improved academic performance. This improvement was not achieved by accident. It got its impetus from a deliberately formulated strategic plan aimed at reviving the school to its former glory.

To this end, one strategy employed is target setting as a way of achieving accountability. Teachers are given clear guidelines as to what is expected of them as regards performance. One measure of their performance is students’ performance in tests – monthly tests, end of term tests and end of year tests, all internal tests. Great emphasis is also placed on students’ performance in external examinations, Mathematics and English Language holding key importance. Students’ performance in these subjects seem to be a benchmark against which the government measures schools’ performance and, by extension, the country’s performance in external examinations. Students passing five or more subjects in the external examination including Mathematics and English are deemed to have adequately met the academic standards set for them.

At this school, the students’ performance is expected to improve incrementally over the internal tests. If their performance does not improve, the teacher has to give an account then devise remedial efforts to have the students who did not meet the required standard improve their performance. With improved performance, teachers are incentivized in a number of ways.

I agree with the school’s decision to hold teachers to account. This should prevent them from just going through the motion and demand more from themselves than some normally do. However, this initiative could be a source of added stress for teachers, especially those coming from a culture where teachers go to classes, teach and the burden of learning is placed on the student. If some students learn, that’s good. If some don’t learn, that’s their business. After all, we can’t cut their heads open and put knowledge in them. This cycle keeps repeating itself.

The environment that has been created by the new management of this school is one that requires that all stakeholders in the school reorient themselves from the traditional mindset of business as usual to one that is based on action, one that demands measurable performance. Teachers seem to be given most of the necessary resources needed to improve their teaching. And they are told what is expected of them – continuous improvement. Teachers, like everyone else, like to be lauded. No one likes a bad review, no matter how gently it is given. In the case of this prominent high school, it would seem that this teacher decided to take a short cut in achieving the targets that the school has set for him, either because he was stressed by the demands or too lazy to put in the effort necessary to reap legitimate success.

And, what of the students? These students by virtue of their age knew right from wrong. They are intelligent students, having been successful in the first phase of the external examinations. They were doing other subjects that required that they followed a particular procedure to complete work for their external examinations. It would seem that none of them saw fit to question the decisions made by their teacher. Obviously, they argued, like my former student above seemed to have done, that the end justified the means. However, there are consequences to every action. But, in this case, they did not factor in the consequences.

This situation with this school has forced me to question the legitimacy of results achieved by other schools, not only here in Jamaica, but in every country in which the examination is the major method used to test the competence of students to exit schools and move on into the world of colleges and universities and work. To what extent do those who teach and learn take the adage, honesty is the best policy seriously? And to what extent are quality control agencies set up by government able to monitor the way schools operate? The answer to these questions will raise serious issues which will be a commentary on education systems wherever they are located.