Teachers’ union officials are calling for the Ministry of Education to invalidate the 12th grade se-cond-semester examination results and retest, claiming officials sold question and answer sheets at Phnom Penh high schools before the exams last week.
Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association, appealed to the government in a letter Friday, asking that the cheating allegations be investigated. “The examination results should be canceled if education officials are willing to think of the future of young Cambodians and the national interest,” he said Sunday. “Anyone who leaked the examinations should be found and punished.”
Teachers reported to union officials that they confiscated answer sheets that were sold 30 minutes before the test, Rong Chhun said.
Ministry of Education Secretary of State Pok Than said he is looking into the CITA allegations.
“I got the letter and we are going to take action and investigate,” he said Sunday.
Meas Ngeuk, Municipal Education Department deputy director, said he was unaware of CITA’s demands and the investigation.
Students are required to pass first- and second-semester exams in each of their high school years in order to take the graduation exam, scheduled for Aug 5.
While improvements to the testing system have made it more difficult to alter scores after the test, the system does not fully guard against the leaking of exam papers, said Luise Ahrens, an academic specialist based at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
“Whether there’s cheating within the test, I don’t know,” Ahrens said Sunday. This is not the first time education officials leaked examinations, Rong Chhun said. “It is not hard to find anyone who leaked the examinations because just a few officials are involved.”
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Collins)
