Days after a ‘time zone cheating’ was reported for the first time in the history of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDB), the IB board has reportedly said that no exams will be cancelled, despite several students demanding exams to be either cancelled or taken afresh.
More than 3,000 people have signed an online petition asking the board to either cancel this year’s exam or guarantee justice for students who were not impacted by the leaks. Some students have also taken to social media sites to voice out their requests. Many students from Hong Kong demanded that the exam be cancelled under these circumstances.
Students are accused of taking advantage of time zone variations to leak question papers on social media, giving their classmates who were taking the exam at a different time an unfair advantage.
“This is very unfortunate; maybe a few students did it, but shouldn’t have happened,” expressed Ritu Dubey, principal of CP Goenka International School, Oshiwara. She revealed that the schools have received a newsletter from the IB board addressing this controversy.
“The IB Board has stringent norms and regulations regarding malpractices. As educators, we must make sure to be conscious of these things and teach our students to practice honesty,” Dubey told the Free Press Journal (FPJ). Another principal of a top IB school in Mumbai termed this controversy as an unfortunate incident.
Preferring to be anonymous, he said, “It is unfair to the hardworking students.” He further expressed concerns about the misuse of social media in today’s time, stating, “This is another reminder that social media should be used wisely.”
Having confidence in the Indian students, another principal from the city’s IB school claimed that no cases of Indian students indulging in this act of cheating have come to light. She further shared that the board has notified the school that no exams will be cancelled, despite the demands of several students on social media.
“The exams are being conducted smoothly. There is continuous communication between the board and the schools regarding this controversy. No examination will be cancelled or postponed,” she claimed.
Leaked questions from a variety of IB papers, including business management, global politics, mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, and chemistry, have been discovered on Reddit and Telegram, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.
In a press release shared by the board, it was revealed that only a small percentage of students engaged in ‘time zone cheating’.
“To date, there is no evidence of widespread cheating and we are confident that this activity remains at the fringes of what is otherwise a standard exam session,” it said.
However, the report pointed out that there was evidence to the contrary, with leaked materials having been downloaded more than 45,000 times as of Sunday.
