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Cheating Now Tech-Savvy
Nairobi, Nov 06, 2009 (The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
Smuggling notes into exam rooms or scratching them on the skin used to be the customary ways of cheating in tests. Some candidates would leave notes in the toilets and would walk out and take a peek before returning to the exam room to reproduce them.
Not any more. Improved examination supervision has resulted in new trends in cheating and use of technology. Besides using programmable calculators to store formulae, students are now able to obtain the exam questions well before the test.
The Kenya National Examinations Council says unscrupulous exam officials open the questions before the scheduled time and pass on the information to candidates. Technology is also aiding exam cheats.
Using mobile phones, those behind leaks can scan full examination papers, especially diagrams, using scanners powered with Bluetooth applications and then use the same technology to transfer the questions to their mobile phones.
From there, it is an easy enough task sending the information to their clients. When the students receive the questions, they forward the messages to friends, mostly at universities or in some cases, friendly teachers who answer the questions before re-sending them.
Data bank watches are capable of holding several pages of mathematics formulae not provided in the mathematics table, accounting formulas or chemistry equations to aid a student in the exams. Some students are also using tiny wireless earphones to communicate to the outside world.
The earphones are so well concealed inside the ear that invigilators and supervisors will never detect them. Mobile phones, however, still remain the favourite mode of communication for cheating students. Using text messages or calls, one can pass on volumes of examination material.
The English Paper 1 questions obtained by the Saturday Nation were sent as text messages while Biology questions were sent through cheaper phone call rates that cost less than Sh20.
During the 2007 KCSE tests, use of mobile phones to send leaked exam questions was so rampant that the Knec sought the help of mobile service providers to track down the culprits. "Safaricom has been tracking down these text messages," Knec secretary Paul Wasanga told Daily Nation in 2007.
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