KUWAIT: Acting Minister of Education Dr Abdul Mohsen Al- Mudej said that an investigation is ongoing to determine if a physics final exam sheet for public high schools was leaked. The senior official's statements came in response to rumors on social media speculating that a large number of students had access to leaked model answers, and that teachers could be involved in the scandal. Minister Mudej could neither confirm nor deny the rumors, saying that the ministry is waiting for the results of an investigation. "Everything is going well," Mudej told reporters during a tour of two local high schools Sunday. "We felt that students were serious and studied hard. We did not observe any problems which could affect this phase of their lives. We wish success to all students." In spite of the ministry's efforts to prevent cheating by smart phones and headsets, some reports suggested that many high school students were able to break the anti-cheating measures and shared the answers of the mathematics, history, geography, and biology exams.
The ministry failed to prevent cheating as students were innovative and created new ways to cheat during the exams, said educational sources with knowledge of the case. "The students are organizing themselves in groups, and contacting tutors during the exams who sent them the answers to their smart phones," explained the sources who spoke to Al-Jarida on the condition of anonymity. Consequently, 12th grade students of the scientific department shared pictures during the math exam for a paper said to contain the answers.
Meanwhile, 12th grade students of the arts department did the same thing with the history test, according to unnamed sources. They added that the same method was used by 11th grade students during the biology and geography tests. Earlier reports had indicated that several accounts appeared on social networks ahead of the exams, selling devices that could help students cheat, such as digital watches and tiny earpieces that are hard to detect. The passing rate is expected to increase in high schools because of the high rate of cheating, the sources said. So far, the ministry announced that the passing rate in physics was 80%, while five student were kicked out of the exam for cheating, which the sources say could prove the theory that cheating using technology has happened
© Kuwait Times 2014
