No copying

SOME primary schools are starting early when it comes to teaching their pupils about plagiarism.

At Rulang Primary School in Jurong West, even Primary 1 pupils learn about citation. 'They learn to ask who's the author, who's the narrator, when they read something,' said principal Cheryl Lim.

Such lessons on the gravity of plagiarism gradually increase over the years. By Primary 6, all pupils know how to write a bibliography, which must be appended to everything they submit, she added.

North Vista Primary principal Phua Kia Wang ramped up cyber-wellness education at his school in Sengkang when he realised some pupils were unfamiliar with the concept of intellectual property.

'When told to do research, their first instinct was to copy whole paragraphs from their textbooks or the Internet,' he recalled.'The first thing we teach them is to understand and respect the rights of the author, and how to give credit.'

With children now turning to the Web for help with school projects, plagiarism - once an issue associated with higher education institutions - may soon become a problem at the primary level.