Algeria to introduce stiffer controls on baccalaureate exams

21/04/2008

Algeria's National Education Ministry is preparing an "anti-cheating" plan for the baccalaureate examination, leaving teachers, parents and pupils to question the implications.

By Mouna Sadek for Magharebia in Algiers – 21/04/08

[Getty Images] Some Algerian teachers fear that police officers stationed outside schools during the baccalaureate examination could disturb students and cause their performance to suffer. Others support the move.

Students taking the baccalaureate examinations in Algeria on June 7th will face tighter supervision and oversight and stricter grading. Education Minister Boubakeur Benbouzid's announcement on the subject early this month received a mixed welcome from teachers and candidates. While some agree the government should make every effort to eliminate fraud, others feel that stiffer arrangements could unnecessarily raise students' stress levels.

The plan, which calls for increasing the number of monitors and tightening security in testing centres, could heighten "fear of the blank sheet", some teachers fear. "This plan will stress pupils," said Algiers natural sciences teacher Mrs Salhi. "The fact of seeing police officers at examination centres may disturb them, and their performance will suffer," she concluded.

One philosophy teacher, who preferred not to be named, feels differently. He said that in grading centres, he often found identical answers on different test forms. "This is all the more strange when you’re dealing with philosophy essays," he said. "Candidates who get through the bac by cheating will not get far. They’re deluding themselves, because whatever they do, their level of ability will still be low."

Like him, other teachers say they have been "shocked" at the worsening problem of cheating. "Pupils don’t even try to copy discreetly," said Mrs Habib, a retired French teacher. "They don’t seem to take it seriously that this sort of action could cost them a five-year ban on sitting for the bac."

The education minister said in a recent media interview that 175 cases of flagrant cheating were reported during the 2007 baccalaureate examinations, compared with 17 in the elementary exam (BEF). More than 80% of these were committed by private candidates.

"We are going to increase the number of monitors and tighten up security across the whole process," Benbouzid said, adding that there will be a threefold increase in pay for graders.

Many students in their final year remain sceptical about the education ministry’s anti-cheating plan.

"There are two views: a good student will tell you they don’t have the time to cheat and see what’s going on around them. The time you have is barely enough to answer the questions. A bad student will tell you that cheating techniques have been developed so well that nothing or no-one could stop them," said Mustapha, fourth-year secondary pupil studying experimental science.

Other pupils feel that the initiative is a good idea. "In the exams, classmates who cheat irritate us by asking questions. It’s the good pupils in particular who suffer from this," said Linda Saidoun, a private candidate taking the bac for the second time. Her mother, a primary school teacher, called the plan "ludicrous".

"Our children are not cheats," she said. "I've supervised the baccalaureate examinations on a number of occasions, and I’ve never seen any cases of cheating. There must certainly be some dishonest pupils, but in my opinion these are isolated cases. These measures, as they have been presented to us, are disproportionate," she added.

Benbouzid said that the new policy will help to maintain the credibility and international value of the Algerian diploma. "I am not prepared to see the international esteem in which it is held being knocked, because that would harm our children and do them a disservice," he said. "I will defend the value of the bac."