Hundreds of cheating cases despite strict search, tough penalties

Hundreds of cheating cases despite strict search, tough penalties

By Faten Omar

KUWAIT: Several schools busted hundreds of cases of cheating in the first days of the final exams for 12th-grade students. Rotating school principals entrusted with chairing examination committees is a demand by many in order to avoid and prevent such practices. Sources revealed that the number of cheating cases discovered in two days reached nearly 600 in the science and arts streams. Cheaters are denied entry to the rest of the exams and score zero in all subjects, which is considered as a heavy-handed response by many.

Iman Al-Ali, a teacher, told Kuwait Times that despite being an educational staff member, she considers the action of the ministry of education exaggerated. “The ministry of education has made an ill-considered decision. It is not fair to fail the student in all exams because they cheated. They should fail the student in the exam they cheated in,” she said.

Ali explained that cheating has increased due to the e-learning period that led to a deterioration in the quality of education, which made it a phenomenon that threatens the future of generations, adding it is the ministry of education’s fault. “I do not agree with cheating, but because the student cheated in one