Search Results For: exams

National secondary and high school exams are a big deal in the Arab world. But when MENA governments cut off internet access nationwide to stop students from sharing exam answers, they also block access to essential online services.

As students in MENA sit down for national exams, governments cut off the internet and implement shutdowns. Here’s what happened in 2022.

A, B, C, or D — all of the above? Governments worldwide are shutting down the internet to prevent exam cheating.

When will it stop?

Shutting down the internet to prevent cheating on exams is not efficient or effective. Rather, shutdowns hurt human rights, disrupt public affairs, and cause huge financial losses that compound the longer the shutdown lasts.

Iraq is imposing curfew-style internet shutdowns, where the internet is shut down repeatedly, routinely blacking out online communications on an ongoing basis.

Shutdowns during exams are increasingly common in countries like Iraq and Algeria, despite the harm they cause to human rights and the economy. But it’s relatively new in India, and it must be stopped.

Since the beginning of 2023, governments around the world are discovering new reasons to disrupt internet access during key national moments.