Ohh those Cheating Arab Students!!

Monday 15th February 2010
Well, here I am with only five days left in this country. Blog time is running out, and now THIS entry will seem MUCH too late. But hey – I've been busy with my “Clearance” which involved running around coordinating, getting signatures and more. But more on that in a later blog. Right now, I am here to tell you all about the very last day of work in the college.

Well, it was the last of the exam invigilation sessions. The others had gone smooth as silk with no trouble and no noticeable cheating of any kind. THAT, in itself, was quite remarkable and, I suppose, meant that all the very “best” was yet to come.

And so it proved to be …

Up I went to the classroom where the exam was to be. A few students were milling around so I hung around outside until the guy who I supposed was the chief invigilator came along. Went in with him, introduced myself and we chatted briefly for a while. Seemed a friendly sort of chap – I think the first who actually WANTED to talk to me out of those I'd been in the exam with. I noticed that the third invigilator wasn't here. Well, I thought, it is a small classroom and I am sure we will cope on this, the last day …

The students came in slowly. Had to get a few more chairs. The type of chairs are those which have the “mini desk” tacked on the side and they flip up to let you in and out. I think that kind is a nice and practical kind of desk, though others don't like them. One problem is that they DO easily break and it DOES mean you can't spread all your books, pens etc. around too much since you only have space for your writing pad and maybe one book which you read from. Yes, space IS an issue with them, but I still like them. Sometimes they come in left-hand versions but when I have tried to bring them in for student exam use, they have been rejected - “because they are left-handed”. Well, Saudis have a thing about the left hand being “unclean” and so maybe a left-handed desk is also this way. No consideration for the many left-handed students around though who WOULD find such a thing useful. Anyway …

OK, it seemed we had three classes in together and apparently they were all doing the same exam even though one of those was a diploma-level class. Doesn't make much sense, but then in the words of our departed Head of Department, “WHERE ARE YOU??”. Knowing THAT makes EVERYTHING perfectly sensible of course.

So the students were seated. I took my invigilation seat. There was one guy sitting in the centre of the room and he had VERY suspicious eyes. He was sitting there and turning around EVEN NOW to see where his friends were and, in addition, was keeping an eye on me as if to “stare me out” or something.

I KNEW there and then that HE was going to be a troublemaker. And indeed I was right, though he was not alone.

The exam started quietly enough and the first half hour was trouble-free. But this guy in the centre was looking behind him, and to THAT I hissed at him and shook my head to let him know I saw this. He gestured as if to say, “What, ME? What am I doing?”, but was clearly NOT innocent. It had begun …

Soon the examiner came in. To my surprise, the examiner was a woman. Well the examiner/teacher I mean as she was, I suppose, their class teacher. A middle-aged African woman she was and she wore the statutory head covering that women of ANY kind here are required to. Foreign women do not cover their faces as Saudi women do, but they do need to have this long black cloak.

OK, a side-step for a moment. I know I have gone through this before, but mentioning face coverings and such made me go look at what these things are and to get their names right. This website, http://www.insidesaudi.com/saudiwomen.html has all the information you need about the Saudi abaya and hijab. As you will see, the 'abaya' is the “large, loose-fitting cloak-like garment worn over their clothes”, and the 'hijab' is basically the headscarf plus face covering. The appearance and colour of these varies around the region, but in Saudi Arabia both of these are generally black (though many do have patterns of some kind).

Back to the exam. So this woman was here and went around helping “her” students. If you ask me, she was helping too much. And if you ask me twice, I wouldn't have ANY kind of help at ALL on exam day. In my opinion, the teacher's role ends on exam day and it is up to the students. Well, you could argue that if they don't understand the question then they DO need help, but then that is a matter for the people who WRITE the exams to MAKE the questions understandable. And I have written about THAT before in the case of the English department and ITS exams.

So, she finished her “helping” and off she went. It was after, I think, the first hour (of two) that the trouble started.

The way it went was like this – whenever the chief invigilator stepped outside the room, somebody or MORE than one person would start the whispering. I WAS sitting there of COURSE and did not move the whole time. I saw this, hissed at them, shook my head and yet it carried on.

I do not remember why it was the chief invigilator had to go out. Well, he was not COMPLETELY out the classroom, but it was when students said they wanted to go to the toilet and he stood at the door making sure they came back. EVERY TIME he did THAT, the whisperings started.

Now, I use the word “whisperings” here, but I am understating the case. What went on in that exam was a total DISGRACE! There is subtle cheating and there is downright, blatant and BRAZEN DISREGARD for the presence of the invigilator. No no – of course they didn't do it when the CHIEF INVIGILATOR was in the room. He is a Saudi man you see, and I am but a “humble foreigner” who deigns to sit in their “mighty presence”.

They acted as if I was not there at ALL!

Well, I did what I could do. When the chief invigilator came back, I told him about this person or those people who had been communicating. He moved THREE PEOPLE in total. TOTALLY USELES Since they just “re-established the network” again and carried on as before. The first person he moved up to the front which worked for a while. But then he moved ANOTHER guy ALSO to the front a few chairs along to his right and so THEY STARTED their communicating. The “centre guy” was, indeed, in the thick of it and he was the WORST OF ALL! With his friend behind him and others around him he was turning round to them and looking. Oh, and GET THIS – TWICE he actually SHOWED HIS EXAM PAPER to his friends behind him. And I DON'T mean in a subtle way. I mean that right in front of ME he held his paper up just so his friends behind him could see it. I don't mean above his head, but I mean that he held it in such a way that anyone behind him could see it. Either THAT, or he moved aside so that his friend behind him could have a good look, which he certainly DID.

In all we are talking about five or six people who were blatantly and obviously communicating and cheating. And what did our chief invigilator do about it? Well, he moved two or three around the room and he spoke to some of them to, I suppose, tell them to stop. But this was UTTERLY USELESS!!

WHY DID HE NOT KICK THEM RIGHT OUT OF THE EXAM??

I was SO ANNOYED by the end of this exam. Yes we know that students do cheat at times. But mostly these are subtle whispers that you hear but cannot quite determine where they come from, and anyway are infrequent enough to ignore. THIS, however, was the most atrocious display of in-your-face cheating that I have EVER SEEN in my whole 15 years of teaching. I have not seen much I must tell you. And there are a few stories to tell about it, though not here. But NEVER as flagrant a breach of exam conditions as I saw on this day!!

At the end of the exam when all students had gone, I went to the chief invigilator. I said to him this - “If I had been in your position, there would have been two or three of those students OUT OF THE ROOM with their exams over!”.

To THAT he did not have much of a reply.

This is, sadly, the way here. Saudi teachers want to keep their jobs. If they act in such a way that somebody gets kicked out of an exam, then the problem will come back to THEM! These are people with families and children. They do not want to cause trouble for themselves and don't want anyone from on-high coming down on them. For if a student WAS to be kicked out, then he would complain and then that invigilator would have to justify his actions. The student would always win because they would have what they call here, “wasta”.

What is '”wasta”? Well, in its simplest form it means “connections”, or, “influence”, if not through themselves then through their parents or some high-up connection. It is, as we would say, all about, “who you know” and what influence they could have on things. Check the Wikipedia on 'wasta' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasta for more info.

And THAT is what REALLY annoys me the MOST! I tell you, I lay in bed fuming about what I had seen this day, and I really could NOT get to sleep for one or two nights.

Yes, you may say, “So why should you care? You are leaving!”. Well, sorry, but it DOES bother me the attitude of students like this … AND the attitudes of the TEACHERS TOO!

If they do NOTHING, they NOTHING will change! And so that is the way it works here.

Cheating is a way of life. It starts at school and goes unchecked and not stamped on. It then continues throughout their academic life and they probably get much of what they achieve through the same.

Yes, it goes on. I KNOW it does. And I am not going to stamp it out. But I tell you – I for ONE am NOT going to TOLERATE IT! Oh, I don't just mean the odd whispered cheat here and there, but I mean the kind of thing I was witness to on this exam day.

Even NOW, five whole days after the event, this exam day will live with me for as long as I am a teacher. It was blatant disrespect for me as a foreign teacher. What I SHOULD have done was walk right OUT of that exam and left that chief invigilator to deal with those fuckers by himself. But I didn't because I suppose I just wanted to “do my duty” this one last time and get the whole stupid thing over with and get out of here.

And in five days and an hour and a half from now as I sit writing this, I will be doing just THAT. Goodbye and FUCK OFF you cheating bastards, ALL OF YOU!!