Academic Integrity Journal

Academic Integrity Journal Academic integrity is a noble ethic which all educational administrators, instructors and students need to observe Recently, there have been several incidents of cheating which have compromised the quality of education offered in several learning institutions.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Academic Integrity Journal specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Cheating and plagiarism are dishonest academic practices which affect educational standards negatively. This paper will discuss how cheating and plagiarism affect academic practices in different learning environments. Many learning institutions in the country are affected by incidents of cheating and other academic malpractices. Students cheat in exams due to different reasons. Many students cheating to enable them get good grades after their exams have been marked. They cannot tolerate failure because they feel it has a negative impact on their reputation. They resort to cheating to avoid being held responsible for their academic shortcomings. Students are tempted to cheat in exams to satisfy their teachers’ and parents’ expectations. Parents exert a lot of pressure on their children to perform well at school, which drives them to cheat in exams. Some parents do not take failure by their children in examinations, lightly (Daly). They scold their children whenever they receive poor grades in school. Parents need to encourage their children to improve their academic performance, even when they fail. This will reduce the pressure which students have to deal with in educational institutions. Teachers and other education professionals need to observe high moral standards in their duties to discourage students from cheating. Academic dishonesty reflects negatively on an instructor’s professionalism because it shows that he or she failed to prepare students for exams. Instructors need to understand their students to find out what dr ives them to cheat in exams. They need to teach students to have integrity in learning to make them good citizens in future. Academic dishonesty needs to be discouraged to make students learn virtues of hard work, patience and resilience. Students who are morally upright are willing to accept results they get after sitting for their exams. Students need to be made aware on how cheating impacts negatively on their future (Strauss).Advertising Looking for report on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Some students register good grades in college but they are unable to perform responsibilities assigned to them at work. Students who cheat in college examinations fail to acquire skills to help them perform their work responsibilities effectively. Educational authorities need to put in place strict measures to curb academic dishonesty. Students and teachers who engage in cheating and plagiarism need to be punished t o make them stop this habit. Harsh penalties need to be imposed to make more instructors and their students aware of the consequences of cheating. This approach will serve as a deterrent to academic dishonesty. Educational authorities need to come up with laws that criminalize cheating to ensure the habit does not take root in many institutions. Instructors who are found to abet or encourage cheating by students need to have their teaching licenses revoked. This will make them take their professional responsibilities more seriously. Administrators and other stakeholders in educational institutions, need to discourage their students from cheating, to ensure they maintain high levels of integrity in their studies (Strauss). Academic dishonesty is a critical issue which needs to be tackled effectively by all education professionals in the country. Teaching professionals who supervise and evaluate examinations need to be more vigilant to ensure students do not engage in any form of chea ting. Educational institutions need to work with relevant authorities to recommend how examinations. This will ensure questions which students are asked are not very complex. Students should only sit for exams which conform to their levels of education and syllabus coverage. Robbins reveals that students are motivated to cheat when they feel exam questions are too complex for their understanding. This makes them resort to cheating to help them pass their exams (Robbins). Educational experts who formulate exam questions need to liaise with teachers and other curriculum experts to ensure students sit for appropriate exams.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Academic Integrity Journal specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Collaborations between teachers, examination boards and curriculum experts help to reduce cheating incidents in educational institutions. Students need to be told which sections of the learning curriculum ar e examinable, to enable them prepare for exams properly. This will reduce the temptation that drives them to cheat in examinations. Recently, Washington DC, Atlanta and Texas have been in the news for wrong reasons because of rampant cheating in exams by high school and college students (Robbins). One of the leading academic institutions the country, Harvard, has also been affected by a cheating scandal. Investigations which were carried out revealed that some students plagiarized answers and others copied their friends’ work. This scandal has tarnished the reputation of the institution. This shows how academic honesty has become widespread and need to be controlled before educational standards deteriorate. In conclusion, all stakeholders in educational institutions need to work harder to reduce incidents of cheating by students. This will discourage students from engaging in academic malpractices which affect educational standard in the country. This will reduce cheating inc idents in academic institutions thereby improving learning outcomes. Daly,Tim. â€Å"Atlanta Cheating Scandal: Why Dont More Kids Cheat?† Huffington Post. Hufffington Post, 29 Apr. 2013. Web. Robbins, Rebecca D. â€Å"Harvard Investigates Unprecedented Academic Dishonesty Case.† The Harvard Crimson. Harvard Crimson, 30 Aug. 2012. Web. Strauss, Valerie. â€Å"How They Cheated on D.C Tests: Excerpts from New Report.† The Washington Post. Washington Post, 14 Apr. 2013. Web.Advertising Looking for report on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More

Pakistan History, Culture, Geography and Climate

Pakistan History, Culture, Geography and Climate The nation of Pakistan is still young, but human history in the area reaches back for tens of thousands of years. In recent history, Pakistan has been inextricably linked in the worlds view with the extremist movement of al Qaeda and with the Taliban, based in neighboring Afghanistan. The Pakistani government is in a delicate position, caught between various factions within the country, as well as policy pressures from without. Capital and Major Cities Capital: Islamabad, population 1,889,249 (2012 estimate) Major Cities: Karachi, population 24,205,339Lahore, population 10,052,000Faisalabad, population 4,052,871Rawalpindi, population 3,205,414Hyderabad, population 3,478,357All figures based on 2012 estimates. Pakistani Government Pakistan has a (somewhat fragile) parliamentary democracy. The President is the Head of State, while the Prime Minister is the Head of Government. Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif  and President Mamnoon Hussain were elected in 2013. Elections are held every five years and incumbents are eligible for reelection. Pakistans two-house Parliament (Majlis-e-Shura) is made up of a 100-member Senate and a 342-member National Assembly. The judicial system is a mix of secular and Islamic courts, including a Supreme Court, provincial courts, and Federal Sharia courts that administer Islamic law. Pakistans secular laws are based on British common law. All citizens over 18 years of age have the vote. Population of Pakistan Pakistans population estimate as of 2015 was 199,085,847, making it the sixth most populous nation on Earth. The largest ethnic group is the Punjabi, with 45 percent of the total population. Other groups include the Pashtun (or Pathan), 15.4 percent; Sindhi, 14.1 percent; Sariaki, 8.4 percent; Urdu, 7.6 percent; Balochi, 3.6 percent; and smaller groups making up the remaining 4.7 percent. The birth rate in Pakistan is relatively high, at 2.7 live births per woman, so the population is expanding rapidly. The literacy rate for adult women is only 46 percent, compared with 70 percent for men. Languages of Pakistan The official language of Pakistan is English, but the national language is Urdu (which is closely related to Hindi). Interestingly, Urdu is not spoken as a native language by any of Pakistans main ethnic groups and was chosen as a neutral option for communication among the various peoples of Pakistan. Punjabi is the native tongue of 48 percent of Pakistanis, with Sindhi at 12 percent, Siraiki at 10 percent, Pashtu at 8 percent, Balochi at 3 percent, and a handful of smaller language groups. Most Pakistan languages belong to the Indo-Aryan language family  and are written in a Perso-Arabic script. Religion in Pakistan An estimated 95-97 percent of Pakistanis are Muslim, with the remaining few percentage points made up of small groups of Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsi (Zoroastrians), Buddhists and followers of other faiths. About 85-90 percent of the Muslim population are Sunni Muslims, while 10-15 percent are Shia. Most Pakistani Sunnis belong to the Hanafi branch, or to the Ahle Hadith. Shia sects represented include the Ithna Asharia, the Bohra, and the Ismailis. Geography of Pakistan Pakistan lies at the collision point between the Indian and Asian tectonic plates. As a result, much of the country consists of rugged mountains. The area of Pakistan is 880,940 square km (340,133 square miles). The country shares borders with Afghanistan to the northwest, China to the north, India to the south and east, and Iran to the west. The border with India is subject to dispute, with both nations claiming the mountain regions of Kashmir and Jammu. Pakistans lowest point is its Indian Ocean coast, at sea level. The highest point is K2, the worlds second-tallest mountain, at 8,611 meters (28,251 feet). Climate of Pakistan With the exception of the temperate coastal region, most of Pakistan suffers from seasonal extremes of temperature. From June to September, Pakistan has its monsoon season, with warm weather and heavy rain in some areas. The temperatures drop significantly in December through February, while spring tends to be very warm and dry.   Of course, the Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountain ranges are snowbound for much of the year, due to their high altitudes. Temperatures even at lower elevations may drop below freezing during the winter, while summer highs of 40 °C (104 °F) are not uncommon. The record high is 55 °C (131 °F). Pakistani Economy Pakistan has great economic potential, but it has been hampered by internal political unrest, a lack of foreign investment, and its chronic state of conflict with India. As a result, the per capita GDP is only $5000, and 22 percent of Pakistanis live under the poverty line (2015 estimates). While GDP was growing at 6-8 percent between 2004 and 2007, that slowed to 3.5 percent from 2008 to 2013. Unemployment stands at just 6.5 percent, although that does not necessarily reflect the state of employment as many are underemployed. Pakistan exports labor, textiles, rice, and carpets. It imports oil, petroleum products, machinery, and steel. The Pakistani rupee trades at 101 rupees / $1 US (2015). History of Pakistan The nation of Pakistan is a modern creation, but people have been building great cities in the area for some 5,000 years. Five millennia ago, the Indus Valley Civilization created great urban centers at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, both of which are now in Pakistan. The Indus Valley people mixed with Aryans moving in from the north during the second millennium B.C. Combined, these peoples are called the Vedic Culture; they created the epic stories upon which Hinduism is founded. The lowlands of Pakistan were conquered by Darius the Great around 500 B.C. His Achaemenid Empire ruled the area for nearly 200 years. Alexander the Great destroyed the Achaemenids in 334 B.C., establishing Greek rule as far as the Punjab. After Alexanders death 12 years later, the empire was thrown into confusion as his generals divided up the satrapies; a local leader, Chandragupta Maurya, seized the opportunity to return the Punjab to local rule. Nonetheless, Greek and Persian culture continued to exert a strong influence on what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Mauryan Empire later conquered most of South Asia; Chandraguptas grandson, Ashoka the Great, converted to Buddhism in the third century B.C. Another important religious development occurred in the 8th century A.D. when Muslim traders brought their new religion to the Sindh region. Islam became the state religion under the Ghaznavid Dynasty (997-1187 A.D.). A succession of Turkic/Afghan dynasties ruled the region through 1526 when the area was conquered by Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire. Babur was a descendant of Timur (Tamerlane), and his dynasty ruled most of South Asia until 1857 ​when the British took control. After the so-called Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, was exiled to Burma by the British. Great Britain had been asserting ever-increasing control through the British East India Company since at least 1757. The British Raj, the time when South Asia fell under direct control by the UK government, lasted until 1947. Muslims in the north of British India, represented by the Muslim League and its leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, objected to joining the independent nation of India after World War II. As a result, the parties agreed to a Partition of India. Hindus and Sikhs would live in India proper, while Muslims got the new nation of Pakistan. Jinnah became the first leader of independent Pakistan. Originally, Pakistan consisted of two separate pieces; the eastern section later became the nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan developed nuclear weapons in the 1980s, confirmed by nuclear tests in 1998. Pakistan has been an ally of the United States in the war on terror. They opposed the Soviets during the Soviet-Afghan war but relations have improved.