Cheating at exams

So this week is a week of exams in most of the french universities, and for a lot of us, exams are a source of stress and anxiety... AND some of us are so obsessed by their exams and anxious about the possibility of failure that they chose the most extreme solution : CHEATING.

And to this extreme solution, the french universities answered by an even more extreme solution : 5 years without possibility of passing any exam in the french territory. Including the driving licence !

At first I told myself "Wow, that is really extreme just for cheating" and then "This is probably very dissuasive, people must be thinking twice before doing that ". But then I realized that it wasn't, really.

During my 4 years at college, I 've seen a lot of people cheating at their exams. And some of them , of course, were caught.
I remember 2 years ago, a girl in my class of "Comparative law" has been caught watching the answers of our exam in her phone, and one of the teacher asking her to the estrade of our amphitheater and told her, very loudly, in front of all of us : " Miss, you have been cheating, right ?" As she noded, he claimed : "Congratulations, you just ruined your life".

Poor girl was crying as she was collecting her stuff and getting out, scared and ashamed.

So not only there's that very heavy legal sanction, but also a sanction comming from the whole community, a public humiliation.

But what if cheaters weren't the problem ? What if the problem was coming from our conception of intelligence and success ?
If our society valued the constant efforts of a person, instead of his/her production and ability to work at a T(time), maybe people would start on working hard and making efforts to give the best results they can give. And even if the result isn't perfect, it would be rewarded because people gave THEIR BEST. Or maybe I'm I too kind and naïve ?

What do you think ? How is this behavior seen/sanctionned where you live/work/study ?