By Elvin Carl Croker

AS part of World Copyright Day observance, the Guyana National Library held a lunch-time lecture titled “Plagiarism and how to avoid it in the preparation for assignments”.
The lecture was held on Wednesday and featured Dr. Joyce Jonas speaking to a number of Grade 10 students selected from 10 secondary schools in Georgetown.

At the beginning of her discussion, Dr. Jonas requested the students to show by the raising of hands, how many of them do their assignments’ research using books.
None of the students indicated but the entire room raised their hands when asked who used their smart phones or computer to do their research.

With this icebreaker, she took the students through a number of rules and regulations on copyright laws in Guyana. She informed the students of a number of ways to avoid plagiarism while using their smart devices and other forms of technology.

At the end of the lectures, some of the students gave some feedback on what they learnt. Shameza Mohamed, a fourth form student of St. Joseph High School, said one of the things she learnt is that plagiarism is really bad and more can be achieved by not copying others work without giving due credit.
Her classmate, Fariza Hannif, said the lecture has helped her to realise that she has been plagiarising a lot.

“Today, I have learnt of the penalties and that when you grow up you will regret it in the future and having your own idea is going to help you a lot more than copying people’s work,” she said.

Junior Kandasammy of Brickdam Secondary, another fourth form student, admitted to committing plagiarism in the past and said the lecture taught him how teachers could identify plagiarised work.

“Well now I learn that it isn’t right, but now going to follow and at least now I know to state the reference of who wrote it and those things,” he said.
“I knew plagiarism was always an issue in schools but I learnt today that you should always cite your sources that you got your information from and give the people the credit that they deserve because it was their hard work that they put into it,” said Nianna Gravesende of Mae’s Secondary School.

The law governing copyright in Guyana is the United Kingdom Copyright Act 1956.
By the Copyright (British Guiana) Order 1966, this Act is applied to Guyana with the necessary exceptions and modifications

The Government of Guyana recently announced moves to enact legislation to bring copyright laws into effect in Guyana. However, the opposition Peoples Progressive Party said Guyana is a poor developing country and should wait until sometime in the future when people can afford to pay for copyright material.

According to the PPP, international treaties do not protect the interests of small countries like Guyana.
But Dr. Joyce Jonas debunked this theory, describing it as the opposition “flogging a dead horse” and that the government is at least trying to do something on copyright in Guyana.