Need for total reform of MSB

 THE following revelations, among many others, were established from that investigation:  

• The report confirmed that cheating occurred in some secondary schools; 
• officers at the MSB breached their own protocols for security of the examination papers; 
• the MSB staff colluded with some head teachers and teachers to leak out exam papers;
• the MSB staff members were accepting bribes to release exam papers, their marking scheme and even answer sheets.  (See Figure 2); 
• the school principals and teachers access the exam papers in advance and their answer sheets and conduct exam drilling or coaching to prepare their students for their examination; 
• the exam papers were sold on the streets for amounts ranging from K20 per copy to K3000;  
• the actual copy of ‘Written Expression Examination Script’ was in the possession of a Grade 12 student in (named province) which was confirmed by her father who is a deputy head teacher in that school;  
• school certificates have had the final grades tampered with a view to ‘upgrade’ the grades on the initial certificate; 
• packages containing examination papers sent to schools were tampered before the set examination date, and,
• Security and protocols at MBS were not being adhered to.

Selected extracts of some 

of the findings from the investigations report

The selected extracts are numbered as per the report (Department of Education 2011) and cited below for the benefit of the readers to read and digest the gravity of the problem of cheating in exams and certification:

m “The examination answer keys were said to have been sent from MSB two weeks in advance before the examination week.  

This was then made available to the Maths B students one week before they sat for the exams. All along the deputy (principal) academic then (named) with the Maths B students called this the ‘Examination Tip Questions’.

m “A copy of the so called ‘Exam Tip Questions’ was verified by the MSB director and the following were confirmed: (a) Two questions were very exact and seen to be ‘cut and paste’. Evidently, this meant that an ‘electronic copy’ was leaked out. (b)  The other 12 questions were slightly modified but (the) context, knowledge, and substance and or essence of the questions were the same as those in the actual ‘Maths B Exam’ paper.

m “(Named student), an ex-female student from (named secondary school) now doing science foundation at the University of Papua New Guinea, reported to teachers that exam papers were selling for K20. She is the only one that can justify her own statement.

m “A student only named as ‘Andrew’ had to spend K1000 on vehicle hires and another K1000 for the Maths B paper from (named secondary school). However they fell short of naming the person.

m “A security guard at (named secondary school) literally offered K3000 to (named person) with the view that he would get the geography paper to be given to him to take to the students before the geography examination. (Named student) refused the security guard and he went away with the money.

m “Secrecy forms signed by the markers defeat the intended purpose as they were never enforced and markers were freely violating this at will.

m “It was strange for the markers to come across (named secondary school’s) Economics answer sheet in envelopes wrapped up in newspapers and thrown into the rubbish outside the marking room. This was only noted when the papers were picked up with the rubbish and loaded onto the vehicle ready for disposal.

m “(A named teacher) from (a named school) who came for marking collaborated with a father from (a named province) and enticed or lured an officer (named) from MSB, by way of bribing him K400 and paying him lunch. “This allowed (the named teacher and named officer) to inflate marks for a student (candidate number nnn) from (a named secondary school). This changed the student’s marks with higher grades enabling him for selection to the (named university). 

m “(Named security guard) interviewed attested that (named officer) has been seen giving away Grade 10 and 12 Statement of Results (SOR) to students even though this does not come under his job description and charging K25 for his personal use. Even after examinations people continue to come and see him (to obtain Statement of Results).

m “The investigation team is aware that there was an investigation carried out in 2008 on the same issue of cheating and actions are yet to be taken. From what has been unfolding during the fact finding exercise, the investigation team is comfortable to say that (sic) are linkages between MSB officers and outside sources that facilitate the process of ’coordinated cheating’.

m “The students’ answer sheets from the following subjects Chemistry, Economics, Biology and Maths B from (named secondary schools) were checked against the marking keys and the following were established: (i) Wrong answers were marked correct, (ii) Wrong answers corrected and marked as correct, (iii) Right answers were marked wrong.

m “Question 3 – Multiple Choices: The answer ‘E’ on the marking key was incorrect as agreed to by the panel of markers. The correct answer was actually ‘A’. Nearly all students doing Biology from (2 named secondary schools) got the answer ‘E’, which was on the answer key that was actually wrong.

m According to the item analysis (Corrected Point Bi-serial Coefficients) done by the MSB the following were noted; (i)  Strong evidence of cheating (ii) Not much spread with the standard deviation (iii) Almost all students got above 50 per cent.

The many item analyses on the different examination papers have shown that there was evidence of cheating in those schools suspected of cheating in examinations.  For example, the item analyses on Physics exam as captured above.

There are many interesting findings from this report that calls for a major reform to improve the manner in which examinations are managed and delivered and certification is handled. We could go on listing all the findings. However, the findings are pointing out that exam cheating is real and the MSB needs to be restructured or reformed to ensure that corrupt practices highlighted in the investigation report are addressed.  

It is totally unfair to those officials, including teachers and principals, who are honest in administering the exam and those honest and hardworking students who sat for the exams.  No actions have been taken to address the cheating issue raised in the internal investigation report and the recommendations have yet to be implemented. 

Exam cheating remains a major challenge for authorities to take corrective measures to improve.   

Sinebare (2013) states that: ‘The integrity of the School Certificate and the School Certificate Examination is at stake.  

The Department of Education has a legal duty to restore confidence in the examination system so that every student is examined fairly under similar exam conditions. Cheating in examinations negates fairness, honesty, diligence, and credence required from every student by giving an unfair advantage to the perpetrators. This however disadvantages students who are academically bright, honest and hardworking. 

There is an even greater social cost to the nation when cheaters ply their trade as they enter and re-enter different work places in their working life. Their potential impact on the society at large may mean they would cheat their way in and gain with dishonesty in whatever they do and wherever they are’. The future leaders of this country who cheat their way in through the school examination system will provide a very weak foundation on which to build a strong Papua New Guinea.

Grand Chief Peter Ipatas was reportedly disappointed that Grades 10 and 12 students in schools in his province were allegedly involved in cheating (The National, 2013a).  Ipatas believed that education officers, teachers and principals collaborated with provincial exam and standards officers for not taking appropriate steps to prevent the illegal practices.  

One reader in a letter to the editor under a Pen name ‘Tougher’ (2013) concluded: ‘More often than not, our students are not being taught in a way to train them to think, analyse, and apply what they have learned. The way our students are being educated lack high level skills of analysing’. Could this mean that students in the Outcomes-Based Education system were unable to cope academically and therefore perform poorly in such an exam where analytical and critical thinking is required?

The National (2013b) pointed out that exam questions and answer sheets were sold for between K1500 and K3000 so there is already a lucrative market for perpetrators and those who need the answer sheets in exams.  

Poka (2013) reported that Grade 8 exam papers were being sold at two different schools in the (named) province on the day of the exam. 

He reported that the papers were being sold for K15 each when the students reported the matter to their teachers, who with the assistance of the local police, apprehended the two men negotiating to sell the exam papers on the day of the exam.

While working on this article the author received an SMS text message (See Figure 3] giving the Marking Scheme or answer sheet for Maths B Exam Paper during the week this very exam was to be taken in 2013. 

This proves that even if Online Exams were used as proposed by the proponents of use of ICT system and keenly supported by the Education Department (Yangharry, 2013), elements of cheating may still persist. 

It may not necessarily avoid cheating as the answer sheet could be transmitted electronically through mobile phones. 

Whether this is a scam or not, this writer is yet to establish if the text message has the correct answer sheet.  There is no compelling reason to believe that exam cheating will be eliminated as it is an entrenched culture in some schools at present. Only through reforming the MSB as well as reforming the school of the cult groupings would we be in a position to minimise or eliminate exam cheating. 

• Part 3 tomorrow
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