Observer Attacked, Students Faint on Final Day of Exam

The second and final day of the national high school exam was conducted in a “satisfactory environment,” according to the education minister, despite one student in Phnom Penh attacking a volunteer observer with a pen and a number of students fainting while taking the test.

More than 90,000 students on Tuesday completed the exam—which was conducted under close supervision by the Anti-Corruption Unit—with only a few reported instances of cheating.

Bun Phearum, a student at Tuol Tompoung High School, faces criminal charges after hitting and then stabbing an observer who had apparently thwarted his attempts to cheat on the physics section of the exam.

“The student was very nervous and he assaulted the ACU monitor,” said Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron, adding that the female observer, who has not been identified, was not seriously harmed.

Sin Sovy, an observer at Tuol Tompoung High School and a monk, said that Phearum lost his temper and “hit her in the face because the observer was more active than other observers.”

Mr. Naron said that the student had stabbed the observer with a pen and would likely be disqualified from this year’s exam and prevented from sitting again until 2017.

“Under our regulations, if a student assaults an exam organizer he or she will fail and also could not be eligible for the next two years,” he said. “Also, the assault is liable for criminal action under the law.”

Chhay Savuth, vice chairman of the ACU, charged with policing the exam—which will be the sole determinant of state university placement and has for years been tainted by bribery and cheating—declined to comment on the assault.

But he did offer his assessment on a number of reported faintings during the two-day examination.

“Some students did faint,” he said. “It is normal. It was not caused by nerves, but their health. No one threatened them.”

Mr. Naron, who since being appointed education minister last year has made reform of the high school exam a top priority, also said he had preliminary reports from the ACU of two cases of proctors taking bribes from students in Kompong Thom province and one case of an imposter attempting to sit the exam in the place of a registered candidate in Svay Rieng province.

“The examiners were collecting money but we need to wait for the full report from the ACU,” he said.

In Phnom Penh on Tuesday, Gao Meng Leang, an 18-year-old who completed the national exam at Bak Touk High School, said that he had little hope of passing the test and gaining entry to university.

“The pass score is 275 but after I calculated my scores, I only got 190,” he said.

Meng Leang said he had prepared for the test by buying an answer sheet but that his plans of success were thwarted by the strict new conditions of the national exam.

“The cheating exam papers could be brought into the classroom but I could not use them.”

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