POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS QUIZZED OVER EXAMS FRAUD (PAGE 11)

Thirty-one students of the Accra Polytechnic have appeared before the Examination Malpractice Committee of the institution for their alleged involvement in various forms of examination malpractice.
A member of the committee, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Daily Graphic that the polytechnic authorities had taken a serious view of the social canker in the school and was bent on uprooting it completely.
The posting of the names of the 31 students on the polytechnic notice board this week became the topical issue on campus, with students congregating around the notice board to check whether their names or those of friends were included.
Some of the students committed serious examination malpractice such as sending notes and scripts into the examination halls from which they copied.
Others were found with mobile phones which contained text messages related to the papers they were writing.
Others were also found with more than two phones and calculators from which they copied graphs and other calculations in mathematics related to the examinations they were writing.
In one incident, a student who was found with notes in an exercise book related to the examination but who chewed and swallowed the notes before the invigilators could seize them from him had also been requested to appear before the committee.
According to a member of the committee, some students asked permission to visit the urinals, only to be found, after a long time had elapsed, in the urinal reading notes in connection with the examination they were writing.
He urged students to avoid short cuts to pass their examinations, since they were liable to be exposed in the future in their chosen professions when they could not perform efficiently
Some of the students who congregated around the notice board to discuss the list accused some of the school authorities of leaking examination questions to some students.
They were also of the view that the list could have contained more than 31 students because the number of students caught was more than the 31.
One student told the Daily Graphic that in her class more than seven students were apprehended by the invigilators for engaging in examination irregularities but because they had “connections their names have been left out and only seven names appeared as those caught engaged in the malpractice”.