CHEATING LEADS TO ANNULMENT OF EXAMS

Mozambique’s Higher School of Journalism (ESJ) has annulled admission exams held in Maputo on 17 January, because of evidence of cheating.The annulment concerns the Portuguese and history exams taken by 625 candidates, examined in classrooms at the Josina Machel Secondary School. In at least one of the rooms, the monitors supervising the exams sold advance copies of the tests to candidates.According to Tomas Jane, director of the ESJ, two days after the exams one of the candidates made a written denunciation of the cheating.Cited in Monday’s issue of the daily paper “Noticias”, Jane said “we set up a commission to investigate the case, and the report showed that there were strong signs of academic fraud, and so we chose to annul the exams”. During the investigation some candidates, chosen at random, said they had paid 100 or 200 meticais (about three to six US dollars) for copies of the tests.The Maputo exams have been rescheduled for 22 February. The measure does not affect candidates who sat the exams in the other provincial capitals, where there was no indication of cheating.The corrupt staff who sold the test papers have been identified, Jane said, and the measures to be taken against them will be announced after the investigations are complete.