Students following an exam at Sisowath High School in Phnom Penh last year. Post staff
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport announced guidelines on Wednesday for students to follow during this year’s Grade 12 examinations.
In the announcement posted on its Facebook page, the ministry said candidates would be disqualified if they failed to hand in answer sheets, mobile phones and other electronic devices to invigilators before the examinations or are found to have hidden materials during the tests.
The announcement said candidates who cause disorder will automatically fail and are subject to being suspended from Grade 12 examinations for one or two years.
In serious cases, candidates will be referred to the relevant authorities for further action.
Ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha told The Post on Thursday that all high schools throughout the Kingdom had already disseminated the guidelines before the ministry’s announcement.
“Now we publicise it on Facebook. On the examination days, the ministry will post the guidelines at all centres,” he said.
Article 49 of the Education Law states that anyone found to take national exams for others faces a fine of up to five million riel ($1,250).
In the case of a repeated offence, the fine will be doubled and the offender will be suspended from the examinations for two years or barred from registering for future ones.
Article 605 of the Criminal Code stipulates that candidates caught paying bribes of any form face up to 10 years imprisonment.
Im Sothy, the executive director of NGO Youth Council of Cambodia, on Thursday described the ministry’s guidelines as too little too late.
“The ministry issued the guidelines when it’s already close to the examination days. It could confuse candidates and lead to them committing honest mistakes during the examinations,” he said.
Sothy also called on the ministry to correct technical glitches in its scoring system, which last year sparked controversies and led to candidates protesting the official results.
“If the ministry is not attentive, it could cause people to lose trust in the education system,” he said.
A total of 119,217 students, 61,031 of them girls, have registered for this year’s Grade 12 examinations, which will last two days on August 19-20. That represents an increase of 5,852 candidates compared to last year.
The number of examination centres throughout the country for this year increases by six to 202. Candidates will take only seven exams out of a total of 10 subjects they study at schools.
The Anti-corruption Unit (ACU) has said it will not send observers to monitor this year’s Grade 12 national examinations despite having done so the last five years.
In a written statement issued on June 27, the unit also recommended that the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport improve its monitoring scheme by deploying more invigilators at each location of the tests.
The anti-graft body instead urged the education ministry to strengthen the inspection of the examinations in its observers' absence.
