The Integrity and Honesty of the Bagrut Exams in Israel

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Integrity can be defined as "an uncompromising adherence to a code of moral, artistic or other values, utter sincerity, honesty and candor, avoidance of deception, expediency, artificiality or shallowness of any kind" (The Penguin Concise English Dictionary). In simpler words this means to maintain high standards and follow the rules, even when no one is watching. Integrity is very important in our everyday life if we wish to be good people. Certain people feel that in order to advance themselves in life they need to break certain rules, such as rules that are decreed on examination booklets. Academic honesty and integrity is a necessary ingredient for school systems to evaluate their curriculum. There are students who place a lot of effort and work arduously to earn their grades where as there are other types of students who believe they will prosper academically only through the means of cheating. There are probably a number of students who cheated their entire way through high school and college classes, ignoring and disrespecting the integrity of the exams, thus coming out with a degree in a dishonest manner and never having had learned a thing. These people graduate from college thinking that they are prepared to embark on their journey into the "real" working world and start their career with a diploma that they did not earn based on their own merits. It is possible for a student to cheat their way through high school but its unlikely that they will be able to cheat their way through life. Educational systems differ world wide. The Israeli educational system uses the bagrut exam as the main tool to review a students knowledge and capabilities. A student is awarded the bagrut certificate upon meeting and fulfil... ... middle of paper ... ... education and they are more likely to achieve a less esteemed position in the work force (120). Cheating is prevalent in all educational institution. The board of education knows such incidents occur, but they lack the evidence and the facts to substantiate their suspicions. Works Cited Acland Henery., et al. " Inequality in Educational Attainment." The Structure of Schooling. Eds. Arum and Beattie. Mountain View Ca :Mayfield Publishing Co. Ayalon, Hanna, Michal Kurlaender, and Yossi Shavit. "School Alternatives, Inequality and Mobility in Israel." Social Schooling and Social Capital in Diverse Cultures 13 (2002) :105-121. "Cheating." The Penguin Concise English Dictionary. 2001. Gamoran, Adam. "Curriculum." Education and Sociology : An Encyclopedia. Eds. P.W. Cookson, D.A. Levinson, A.S. Sadovnik. New York : Garland Publishing, 2001.

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