Reports of student bribery have prompted Phnom Penh officials to order a mass re-assessment of first semester test scores, a municipal education department official said Wednesday.
Investigation committees have been ordered to go to schools throughout Phnom Penh and correct the exams again, said Um Hoeurng, Phnom Penh municipal education department director.
“We have found some irregularities within the scores,” he said. “Currently we are correcting the semester scores for accuracy.”
The ministry has long grappled with cheating on final exams, which are compiled with semester scores for a final grade. But educators reported this month more students than ever before bribed officials to exaggerate their semester scores—a relatively new form of corruption.
On Friday, the department plans to gather all principals in Phnom Penh to warn them against taking bribes, he said.
“We haven’t fired or suspended them,” he said. “This is a small mistake; we only advised them.”
Teachers reviewed and rescored examinations late last week at Preah Yukunthor High School, where a student reported having bribed teachers to increase a test score, principal Kuoch Sannkouy said. Students said the practice was common among students throughout the city.
After rescoring the exams, the school found some scores were higher than the students actually performed in the exams, Kuoch Sannkouy said. “We found out that some of the exam papers yielded scores that were too high, so we reduced them,” he said.
He said some teachers may increase scores of the students to whom they are related.
Cambodian Independent Teachers Association President Rong Chhun lauded the education officials for investigating the exam scores. But, he said, the ministry should discipline principals and teachers involved in the bribery and force them to return the students’ money.
