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Algeria has temporarily blocked access to social media across the country in an attempt to fight cheating in secondary school exams. The decision to block social media was taken to protect students de la publication of "bogus questions on those networks", officials told Algeria's APS news agency. Almost half of students are now being forced to retake the baccalaureat exam, starting on Sunday, after the initial session was marred by online leaking.

In Algeria the gendarmerie carried out ‘tens of arrests’ for fraud by officials, teachers and heads of some exam centres. Papers had been leaked via social networks, through more than 150 Facebook accounts, which had enabled the police to identify and arrest perpetrators. Meanwhile, 53 people have been arrested in a number of towns in Morocco for their alleged involvement in baccalauréat fraud. The arrests concerned 22 administrators of social network chat pages and sites for facilitating exam paper leaks and answers in return for money

In the latest education scam from Bihar, it appears that students can purchase top-scoring intermediate certificates for around Rs 5 lakh without even having to write the exam. Moreover, many schools and colleges have been getting their affiliations by improper means. All these skeletons are tumbling out in the light of probes launched after a TV sting found this year’s top-scoring students struggling to answer basic questions about their subjects. Most memorably, one top student said that political science is about cooking. The rot in the state of education has certainly been a long time cooking.

The online disclosure of college admittance high-school exams has led to nationwide disruptions in Egypt and Algeria. Despite vows by authorities to make sure tests are secure, exam questions have been leaked prior to exam administration in both countries for several years. An October decree by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for prison sentences for unauthorized disclosure of testing materials. But that decrees has failed to deter a cluster of Facebook groups that have leaked exam questions.

This is what is provided in a law passed last autumn to combat endemic levels of cheating during the gaokao, china’s national exam which determines the future career of its candidates. Following the adoption of the law, student caught or accused of cheating can face seven years imprisonment in a state gaol. A law voted in last autumn, also makes cheating a crime. This is why, last Tuesday 7 June, the day of the goakao, the Chinese authorities ordered the deployment of 768 police officers, tasked with supervising the country’s 96 exam centres.

The Education Cabinet Secretary brushed off critics of the new measures he announced on Wednesday and announced that he will set aside all his ministerial duties in November to go around the country and monitor how the national examinations will be conducted. The secretary, known for his impromptu visits to schools which have put many headteachers on the spot, on Friday said his November 4 to 30 diary had been cleared to ensure he visits schools countrywide. He said there were many other measures the ministry has in the pipeline to stem examination cheating, including the use of technology.

The new rules spelt out by the Education Cabinet Secretary to curb cheating in national examinations signal the government’s determination to restore credibility in the country’s education system. For the past few years, the country has been grappling with rising cases of examination cheating, which reached ridiculous levels last year to the point where the public lost faith in the sanctity of the exams as schools, candidates, parents, examiners, and education and security officers were all roped into the cheating loop. More bold action must be taken to restore the credibility of the exams.

The school calendar has been reorganised and far-reaching changes introduced in the administration of national examinations to curb cheating. The Education CS on Wednesday banned all social activities in the third term — including prayer days, visiting, half term breaks, sports, prize-giving ceremonies and annual general meetings — to cut contact between candidates and outsiders. He also shortened the period for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams from six weeks to four and put head teachers directly in charge of the tests in their respective schools.

High School Certificate (HSC) students are becoming increasingly brazen in their attempts to cheat their way to higher scores, with more than 300 instances of plagiarism recorded in the past year, new data from the Board of Studies reveals. This year, the highest number of cheaters has once again been found across the HSC English subjects with 188 instances of malpractice across the four levels compared to just 15 for all the mathematics courses. Business services had the highest ratio of cheating students, with 9.8 caught per every 1,000.

Teachers have complained about "cheating watches" being sold online to give students an unfair advantage in exams. These digital watches include an "emergency button" to quickly switch from hidden text to a clock face. The watches hold data or written information which can be read in exams. Watches are advertised on Amazon with the claim that they are "specifically designed for cheating on exams". But a deputy head from Bath has warned about the scale of this "hidden market" and says it could tempt stressed students into cheating.