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Monday, November 16, 2009

How weird is it for a United Kingdom based university to prepare exam papers for Mauritius

Last year, during the same period of exams, some of the papers for the most important exams in Mauritius were leaked on the internet. This happened because students of other countries are examined on the same paper on which the Mauritian students are examined. So, due to the difference of the time zones, leaking the paper using the best and fastest way of communication was really too easy. As an extra information, these exam papers are prepared by University of Cambridge located in United Kingdom.



Now after this incident, a lot of people protested and then finally everything was settled. Then, Cambridge made it clear that no students will be penalized and from now on Cambridge will prepare specific papers for each country.



During this period of time, some wise men even proposed that Mauritius should no longer ask Cambridge to prepare those exam papers. No one cared about this at that time though.



This year, another serious incident happened once again in Mauritius. A mistake was found in the Accounts paper for Higher School Certificate exams. Cambridge confirmed this mistake and assured the students that no one will be penalized. A mistake found in a very important exam paper is not a small thing. It's very lame in my point of view for Cambridge to commit this silly mistake which can cost much to those students. How weird is it for a United Kingdom based university to prepare papers for an island in the Indian Ocean.



So wouldn't be much easier if there was a syndicate in Mauritius itself which would prepare those exam papers. Chances for mistakes in the papers would be very little. Because remember that Cambridge prepares specific papers for each country in the world. So, it's not a very easy task for them.



But of course, asking a country to prepare its own exam papers is not something much easy after all. If the students have relatives working where the exam papers are being prepared, the relative can tell him what will come for the exams. This might sound lame but it might be possible. And also a lot of other resources are  important while preparing the papers. There should be a truly perfect team which should be responsible for preparing the papers. A single mistake and everything will be tarnished.



And what about your views? Do you wish a syndicate located in Mauritius to prepare those very important exam papers? Do you think we will have other problems related to Cambridge in the coming years? You can leave your comments below.