I am surprised at how so many people in a place like IITB take to it so easily. It is no longer done in secrecy with the person trying her best to pass it off as an original, but openly and candidly. I saw the first PAF of 2008 a couple of days ago. To say that I was immensely disappointed cannot describe the rush of criticism in my mind for everything that I saw that day. I confess that I have never been involved in 'organizing' a PAF (I have done a couple of voice overs in the past and that's about it) and am probably unaware of the magnitude of effort and intellect that it takes to execute one. But the execution, choreography, production and acting were not what disappointed me (though it is not as if popular opinion endorses them any more than I do). What overwhelmingly caused exasperation was that the entire script and the pedestrian spectacle that was churned out of it were both shamelessly lifted off from a third rate Bollywood film! I was told that even dialogues were conveniently transferred by their so called 'script writers'.
This is but a microcosm of a larger picture of the stagnation that permeates through IITB. Students unscrupulously plagiarize assignments, literature surveys and even theses. It disgusts and disturbs me to imagine the organizers of the recent PAF sitting and brainstorming (one can take that with a pinch of salt) to arrive at a theme for the PAF and in the end, mutually and unanimously agreeing to plagiarize. The story simply repeats when the same guys sit and commit larceny before every assignment, every submission and every thesis defense. Probably the time has come when 'the spirit of inquiry' will exist only as an abstraction and will need to be mummified in a museum of our collective mediocrity. Whatever it is, I am tired of this place and am happy to leave it knowing that I was lucky to know people who ensured that I didn't land up in the same boat as many others!
This is but a microcosm of a larger picture of the stagnation that permeates through IITB. Students unscrupulously plagiarize assignments, literature surveys and even theses. It disgusts and disturbs me to imagine the organizers of the recent PAF sitting and brainstorming (one can take that with a pinch of salt) to arrive at a theme for the PAF and in the end, mutually and unanimously agreeing to plagiarize. The story simply repeats when the same guys sit and commit larceny before every assignment, every submission and every thesis defense. Probably the time has come when 'the spirit of inquiry' will exist only as an abstraction and will need to be mummified in a museum of our collective mediocrity. Whatever it is, I am tired of this place and am happy to leave it knowing that I was lucky to know people who ensured that I didn't land up in the same boat as many others!
1 comment:
I shall agree, but to break the vicious cycle, a very effective way would be strictness on the punishment front from the faculty.
Warn the students beforehand, clearly and punish severely those who disobey. It's easy to catch people who copy assignments!
But sadly there are some faculty members who repeat questions, assignments, do not care about plagiarism themselves :-(
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