More than 50,000 12th-grade students sit down today to university-entrance exams that will be tougher—and tougher to cheat on—than ever, education officials said over the weekend.
Students taking exams in subjects ranging from mathematics, physics and biology to philosophy and history will be given overall grades and classed into groups, Ministry of Education Undersecretary of State Bun Sok said.
University departments can decide what level they are willing to admit, he said. Students who do not score high enough to get into a free university can pay to study at private schools, he said.
Education Ministry Secretary of State Pok Than warned parents not to believe teachers who approach them claiming they will help their children cheat on the exam. The exams have enough safeguards that it will be difficult for a teacher to cheat on behalf of the student, he said.
“The [cheating teachers] charge the money first. If students pass, they take the money. If the students fail, they say they couldn’t help,” Pok Than said.
Sok Sovanna, principal of Baktouk High School in Phnom Penh, said teachers will supply blank paper to students, who will not be allowed to bring paper into the classrooms.
Teachers who exchange answers for bribes will lose their jobs, and students who cheat will automatically fail, he said.
Copy shops near the school will be closed during the 2 1/2-day exam to prevent copying of exam answers, he said.
As in previous years, police will be posted at the 13 schools in Phnom Penh where exams are being administered.
The police are intended to prevent the free-for-alls of previous years, when students’ friends and relatives tossed rocks through windows with answers wrapped around them.
“If we arrest people who throw in the answer sheets, we will keep them [in custody] until the examinations finish [for the morning or the evening],” said Kong Sarann, municipal police deputy chief of security.
Sok Sovanna said police frequently take bribes from parents to bring answer sheets into the classroom.
Kong Sarann denied this was a problem, but said any officers found to be receiving bribes would be disciplined.
