MPs call to punish exam leakers

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari submitted a draft legislation which stipulates a jail term of between two and seven years for those who print, publish or publicize questions of school exams or their answers with the intention of helping students to cheat. The draft legislation was filed after authorities uncovered a large network of teachers who distributed questions of higher secondary exams to thousands of students for money. The public prosecution is currently interrogating over 20 people believed to be involved in the network.

The public prosecution has also given the education ministry a list of names of students who have been involved in cheating groups from 2020 in order to take the necessary measures of either failing them or making them retake their exams, which is within the ministry’s authority. The students were investigated and their phone numbers were found in the phones of accused leakers. Students obtained copies of leaked tests after paying the suspects.

MP Saleh Ashour asked the government to not be lenient and send all those suspected of participating in the cheating scandal to the public prosecution. “In the event of conviction, the services of all convicts involved in this crime must be terminated and they must be dismissed from their jobs, as well as punishing students whose complicity is proven. Do not be complacent on the issue of education,” Ashour told the government. He said the emergence of a generation that grows up and succeeds through fraud destroys the state and its future, considering it as long-term damage.

Also, the criminal court sentenced 15 people, including a former MP, to two years in jail for taking part in tribal primaries ahead of the September elections. The verdict is not final as it can be appealed in the appeals and cassation courts.

Meanwhile, National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun on Wednesday adjourned National Assembly sessions until Feb 7 after the government did not attend. The Cabinet of HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah submitted its resignation on Monday, but there has been no word on its fate until going to print. HH the Amir can either accept or reject the resignation and can also rename Sheikh Ahmad to form a new Cabinet or appoint a new premier.

The government blamed its worsening relations with the National Assembly for forcing it to quit after just over three months of its formation. The government was annoyed by MPs’ insistence to push for populist draft legislation, including one to purchase billions of dinars of loans owed by Kuwaiti citizens to local banks. The government said the draft laws are too costly to public funds.

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