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When the Ministry of Education in 2014 introduced its strict “no cheating” policy for school leavers, many of those who had cheated their way through in previous years surely breathed a sigh of relief. The ministry has been applauded for its tough stance; after all, there’s little point in an education system in which you can cheat your way to top grades. The problem is that, although getting into university is harder, getting through university hasn’t changed much at all. Once you’re in – depending on the institution – the chances to cheat are as widespread as ever. And that means at least some of the 250,000 students in higher education don’t have to learn in order to graduate.

With a mandate to reform a severely flawed education system that produced university graduates who had paid for – rather than studied for – their grades, Cambodia’s Education Minister went to extreme measures to clean up corruption and bribery in Cambodia’s national university entrance exam.

33 youths from South-East Asia gathered in January at the first ever International Youth Camp on Youth Empowerment for Transparency and Integrity (YETI) in Cambodia, to learn and exchange on the negative impact of corruption in their countries and across the region, and brainstorm how they could combat the scourge together. The event sought to enhance the young participants’ sense of belonging to a community, inspire them to stand up to corruption and equip them with the tools to do so.

Asia Pacific: The first ever International Youth Camp on youth Empowerment for Transparency and Integrity (yETI) in Angkor, Cambodia, brought together youths from a number of asian countries, to learn and exchange on the negative impact of corruption in their countries and across the region, and brainstorm how they can work together to combat the scourge

The Cambodian government's Anti-Corruption Unit has been called on to police next month's national school-leaving exam in a bid to stamp out systemic cheating that has for decades compromised the quality of high school students applying for university places.