Around 600 students caught

KUWAIT CITY, June 16: While the committees formed by the Ministry of Education concerned with combating student cheating during exams and punishing those caught in the act by depriving them from answering the rest of the exams and giving a zero score in all subjects, the sale of ‘headphones’ which help in cheating has flooded the market, reports Al-Qabas daily. The daily added, these gadgets are difficult to buy on the black market portal but are easily available on websites and smart apps. The first two days of high school students entering exams at the end of the academic year resulted in the arrest of 600 students caught cheating, including 250 cases in Islamic education.

The value of the headphone is priced between 45 and 65 dinars which once was sold for as low as 25 dinars and as the exams approached the price almost doubled or even trebled. Some students taking advantage of the exam season even offered to sell their headphones which they used earlier and the price ranges between 20 and 35 dinars say sources. There are many forms of cheating, including “T-shirt, bank card, necklace, ear built-in magnetic headset”, all of which contain modern systems and long-range communication capability. In this context, the Kuwaiti National Integrity Society has warned of the spread of fraud, calling on the Ministry of Commerce to issue a decision banning the sale and purchase of equipment used in fraud, including headphones and technological devices in local markets.

In a statement, the society called for activating the supervision and field inspection to control the violating shops, and the inclusion of cheating aids such as headphones and technological devices in the lists prohibited from importing. The sources pointed to the importance of the ministries of Interior and Information following up on websites that offer for sale cheating tools to students and referring them to the Public Prosecution.

Meanwhile, the sources added schools must be provided with modern technological means to detect tools used in cheating, and help the educational institutions in exercising strict control over all examination procedures, starting with selecting a team of honest and qualified professors and staff. The society says cheating can be combated by the prohibition of selling headphones and similar devices, activating supervision and field inspection to control the violating shops, including cheating tools in the lists of items prohibited from importing, referring the owners of websites that sell cheating tools to the prosecution, dealing with such tools as criminal in nature, investigation with the student and his guardian to reveal the circumstances, providing schools with modern means to detect cheating, tightening control over all procedures related to tests, selecting an efficient and honest team to prepare, print and distribute exams papers.