Government to prevent cheating on matriculation exams by disrupting cellphone service.
By DANIELLE ZIRIstudents(photo credit: Wikicommons)
Ahead of the tests to be administered this summer, the Education Ministry announced this week that it plans to implement new measures designed to increase supervision over and prevent cheating on the high school matriculation exams.Among the procedures, the exam department of the ministry will increase control of matriculation exam notebook packaging and coding in order to prevent their replacement or removal outside of the classroom. The ministry also intends to make use of innovative technology to disrupt cellular communication during exam sessions.Education Minister Shai Piron announced that the ministry intends to conduct public information campaigns in schools across the country to ensure test integrity. The ministry will also address the need to help build trust between teachers and students.Dalit Stauber, the directorgeneral of the ministry, said that cheating is an “unacceptable and disturbing phenomenon,” stressing that the ministry “will not compromise on the integrity of exams and [will] take severe measures against any kind of cheating.”Stauber said, however, that the majority of Israeli students do respect testing procedures while maintaining integrity and fairness.“In the education system, we are committed to the future of our children and to strictly adhere to values and morals,” she said.“Copying an exam is an act of fraud and violates parity and the values by which we want society to operate.Therefore, we have to act firmly to eradicate this phenomenon,” the director-general said.The ministry pointed out that according to recent figures, the number of matriculation exam notebooks disqualified on grounds of cheating has declined between 2007 and 2011. Gathering figures for 2012 is “still in progress.”In 2007, out of 1,464,859 matriculation exam notebooks, 11,401 were disqualified.This number only declined by some 100 notebooks every year since, but it dropped in 2011 to 8,840 disqualified notebooks out of 1,333,764.According to ministry policy, cheating on an matriculation exam may result in a suspension of up to three years from taking the exam, depending on the seriousness of the offense.
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