'Build a culture of integrity'

If integrity and ethics are instilled in a child’s psyche from an early age, this becomes an integral part of the child’s life. Corruption and crime, then, are not seen as acceptable practices in any form.

Speaking with a group of journalists at the Prothom Alo office on Wednesday afternoon, Zeenath Reza Khan expressed these views during her talk on ‘Integrity and Ethics in Education.’

Zeenath Reza Khan is an assistant professor of engineering and information sciences at the University of Wollongong in Dubai.

Elaborating on the importance of academic integrity, Zeenath Reza Khan said this encompasses fairness, honesty, truth, responsibility, respect at all times, under any circumstances.

It was not uncommon to deviate into a lapse of integrity due to a number of causes set on by various pressures, including the pressure of homework, social life, exams, jobs and so on. That is why there is need to be taught responsibility at an early age and this is a part of academic ethics.

The lack of academic integrity, Zeenath went on to point out, led to various types of academic misconduct including cheating, plagiarism, fraud, fabrications and so on.

The onset of the digital world ushered in further challenges. The digital general or iGen, said Zeenath, referring the present-day digital-savvy youth, spend significant spans of time on their various digital devices. So when it came to cheating, this too had taken on new dimensions. E-cheating is the use of some form of information communication technology (ICT) to perform academic misconduct of dishonesty in or outside of classrooms in order to gain unfair advantage.

How many of us teach our children integrity on a daily basis, asked Zeenath. In fact, she pointed out, we often reach our children quite the opposite by example. We may bunk office and, in front of our child, lie to our boss over the phone, saying that we are unwell or that an emergency has cropped up, when we are just simply lolling at home. The child learns that lying is fine.

Parents and teachers alike can destroy a child’s ethical values. A parent can to do by doing a child’s homework for him or her, simply because it is less of a hassle. A teacher can do so by proving the students with the exam question papers from beforehand so that her class displays good performance. These are just a few in innumerable example of academic malpractice that too easily becomes a norm. Those guilty of such deviation from ethics defend themselves by saying that the end justifies the means.

So what is the way forward -- another question posed by Zeenath. “Build a culture of integrity,” she said, elaborating the need for developing self awareness, reflecting on the need of integrity for oneself and for the nation, developing trust and respect, teaching integrity by example and so on.

She concluded that it was a holistic approach that could ensure academic integrity through the efforts of parents, teachers and other persons in such responsible positions.

The discussion ended with questions and comments from the participants present at the meeting.