'Hi Mom, What's the Answer?'

via Khmer NZ

August 20, 2010

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Here’s a novel use of cell phones: They can assist you in cheating. On tests.

As the Agence France-Presse writes, it’s common in Cambodia for students to bribe teachers to let them smuggle notes into exams, and even purchase answer sheets for tests from teachers. And some more high-tech cheaters have people read out answers over mobile telephones to them while they’re taking national exams.

As the Phnom Penh Post, which no doubt is one of your bookmarks, reported last month, “around 108,000 Grade 12 students across the country took Khmer literature, social sciences, geography and chemistry exams, and exams in physics, morality, history and English” were taken later.

"What would happen if they fail?" asked Than Vichea, according to AFP. "We have to think about our expenses for schooling, part-time studies and fuel costs, and especially our time."

Students admitted to the AFP that they had “bribed teachers to allow them to use their mobiles to phone relatives for help during the exams, the results of which will be announced on August 20.”

According to the PPP, Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, said that “he had already heard reports of teachers receiving between 5,000 riels (US$1.18) and 20,000 riels from students in exchange for answers to the Khmer literature and social sciences exams.”

For some students, however, the results won’t exactly be a surprise. “Candidates in my room could even make a phone call outside during the exams to get answers," said a female student, adding that some students used their phones to take a photo of the answer sheet and send it to each other via the Internet on their phones," she said.

This is what happens when the country’s government, run by the Khmer Rouge, destroys the entire country’s educational system in the 1970s. Building it back becomes a slow, painful process.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Patrick Barnard