The Ministry of Education has a Policy and an Examination Regulation which does not condone malpractice and has been in use for more than 20 years.
“The standard procedure is such that when a student is found to have cheated or copied during the external examination, he or she will be disqualified. The Policy on External Examinations and Assessment has a section on External Examination Malpractice. It states that any malpractice during an examination can lead to disqualification and the award of zero mark in the subject concerned. Moreover, the disqualification is made within reasonable time after careful consideration of the evidence provided,” commented the Ministry of Education permanent secretary Dr Brij Lal.
Dr Lal also said that all the 154 secondary schools which were examination centers and all the 6600 form 7 candidates for 2012 were sent a Fiji Seventh Form Certificate Examination 2012 Candidate’s Information Leaflet and which has as its final sub – heading “Disqualification”.
“The issue of malpractice or copying is communicated to all schools and candidates through the distribution of the candidates information leaflet well before the external examination is written and the disqualification section states that any one guilty of malpractice will result in disqualification which is the award of zero marks”, added Dr Lal.
The malpractice case at Labasa Sangam is one of the seven cases investigated this year by the Ministry of Education.
“Thorough investigation has been done by our examination office after irregularities in the 11 Labasa (SKM) students’ responses were detected and reported by our Markers. Standard procedure has been followed in every step of the investigation and the findings have been conclusive. As a result based on existing examination rules and policy, the students who have been involved have been disqualified hence the zero mark for Biology, concluded Dr. Lal.”
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