By Nguyễn Hằng

A bad employee or executive can damage a few products or a few projects, but bad teachers can ruin an entire generation, which is the incalculable consequence that the whole society has to bear.

This is the first thing that appeared in my mind when I heard about the news that the organisers of the Genius Olympiad contest decided to cancel the results of a Vietnamese male student for fraud last Tuesday.

The move came four days after Lý Khánh Mai Chi, a 9th-grade student of Lê Văn Tám Secondary School in Bình Thạnh District, HCM City, on July 7, posted a status on her Facebook account, accusing the male student and a teacher of Gia Định High School used her work to participate in the Genius Olympiad in the United States and won the prize.

The organisers of the Genius Olympiad contest said “It has come to our attention that a recent project submitted for the Genius Olympiad has been found to contain a high level of similarity to an original submission by another student. Both students were supervised by the same teacher. After conducting a thorough investigation, we have determined that the student work in question has three to four sentences which are exactly the same as the original work and has three to four sentences very similar with only rearranged words. In addition, a text comparison tool identified that fraudulent work has 86 per cent similarity with the original work. In light of this discovery, we have taken the necessary steps to revoke the award associated with this fraudulent submission. The student’s recognition and any related accolades have been rescinded. Furthermore, we have also taken action against the teacher who oversaw the project’s submission as the account supervisor. The supervisor will not be able to submit any projects for the upcoming 2024 Genius Olympiad.”

Genius Olympiad is an international fee-based competition that promotes awareness of environmental issues through projects in science, creative writing, business, robotics, art, music, and short film. Every year, the competition attracts the participation of many high school students around the world.

This is a really sad and shameful ending because the fraud discovered in this case is no longer the private matter of a student, a teacher, or a school but also the face of a country's academic ethics with international friends.

Chi participated in the 2023 Genius Olympiad with two projects in two categories of Music and Creative Writing.

N.M.T., a teacher from Gia Định High School, was her supervisor.

After that, T. told Chi that she passed the Music section, but she was eliminated from the Creative Writing section.

However, Chi's family found that there was a similar project registered on the contest’s system. They asked the teacher, who said it was just a coincidence.

In June 2023, at the final round in the US, Chi discovered that her project was presented by a male student and he won the bronze medal. Then Chi found that the student was also supervised by her teacher. Chi’s family asked the teacher and the family of the male student to clarify the case but received no response.

“Achievement disease"

"Achievement disease" in the education sector is a problem that has existed for a long time in Việt Nam but it has not been completely resolved so far.

A survey by a group, led by Professor Nguyễn Ngọc Phú, Vice President and General Secretary of Việt Nam Psycho-Pedagogical Association, about "achievement disease" in the education sector, was carried out in eight schools in four provinces and cities, announced in September 2020, showed that 97.7 per cent of participants claim there was "achievement disease" in the education sector.

In May 2023, when answering voters in HCM City on the issue of solving "achievement disease" in the education sector, Minister of Education and Training Nguyễn Kim Sơn said that the ministry has deployed many synchronous solutions to gradually eliminate the disease in education.

However, he also acknowledged that there were still negative manifestations and "achievement diseases" such as dishonesty in learning, teaching, scientific research, and examination; concealing limitations and weaknesses; imposing higher targets than the actual capacity of students and schools; and giving ostentatious and wasteful awards.

Belated apology

Two days after the organisers of the contest decided to cancel the award of the Vietnamese male student, the teacher sent his apology to the students and their families.

The teacher said "No matter how sincere this apology is; it cannot compensate for the mistakes I have made in the incident involving students participating in the competition abroad. My violation has greatly affected the school's reputation, brand, parents and students."

He added "I will take full responsibility and abide by the decision of the school's disciplinary committee. This is a profound lesson in my life, I will constantly cultivate and train myself, overcome and correct the mistakes that the school disciplinary committee has pointed out and I will not repeat them."

The teacher also officially apologised to his two students who participated in the contest.

He added, "The image of me as a teacher in the heart of colleagues, parents, and especially dear students is no longer there".

Those are belated apologies.

If only he apologised and took responsibility as soon as Chi discovered a similar project on the contest’s system, instead of saying it was a coincidence. If only he apologised and taken responsibility when Chi found out the male student used her project to win the bronze medal, instead of saying nothing.

The teacher had at least two opportunities to apologise and bring everything back to its rightful place, but he did nothing.

He even told local medial on July 9, two days after Chi post a status to accuse the male student and the teacher use her work to participate in the contest, that due to a login problem with his account on the contest’s system, he only saw that Chi had passed the music section.

When asked by local media about the same title of Chi and the other student's submissions - "Saigon - Facing the loss of myself" - he said the content of the work was completely different.

He lied.

Teacher’s ethics

Although the controversy ended after the organisers cancelled the results of the male student in the contest, Chi claimed justice for herself and the teacher gave his belated apology to all related people. In the end, both the students are victims of the fraud, in which the teacher played the main role. So, the question becomes: where are the teacher's ethics?

During his lifetime, President Hồ Chí Minh had said “For the sake of ten years, we must plant trees, for the sake of 100 years, we must cultivate people.”

The late president always gave high requirements to the teaching profession, saying it was difficult to grow trees, and even more difficult to grow people.

The late president also said, "Educate a teacher, and gain a whole generation".

The example set by a teacher will be followed by a generation, whereas the bad behaviour of a teacher cause hurt and distrust among an entire class of people.

In my estimation, the role of the teacher is not only to share knowledge but also to show students how to be human, including implanting proper ethics. Only ethics can cure cheating, plagiarism, and stealing other people's ideas in the education sector.

If you cheat, you might gain a beautiful resume, a beautiful school profile, an entrance to a top university, or a scholarship to study abroad. But the losses might be larger than you imagined. The losses will be self-esteem, honesty, confidence in your ability, and the feeling of happiness when you overcome difficulties by yourself. What you lose is yourself.

Only a teacher who does not cheat, does not lie, and bravely admits their own mistakes, can educate a generation of citizens who consider honesty a core element in the principles of living and working.

In the mutual relationship between virtue and talent, virtue must come before talent, virtue is the foundation, the root of the teacher. Teachers must be virtuous, then students will be virtuous.

There are still many good teachers, but this case was a lesson, warning all teachers about the ethics of the profession.

To be a teacher, you must first have ethics! — VNS