Hundreds of Somali high school pupils took to the streets of Mogadishu on Tuesday to protest the cancellation of national exams after the papers were leaked on social media.
Education Minister Abdullahi Godah Bare on Monday announced that the six exams that had already been taken were cancelled, and that the whole process would begin again at the end of May.
“The ministry will take further steps to ensure that the exam is not leaked next time and there is the possibility of disabling online social media platforms in the country during the five days of the exams,” he said.
He did not elaborate on how the papers were distributed via social media but said they had been leaked from one of 90 examination centres, and that parents had participated in the sale of the tests.
“It was unfortunate that a hard-working student was sitting by the side of another one who relied on examinations he bought,” Bare said.
Students took to the street in anger.
“We stayed late at night to prepare these exams for three nights… and after all we went through, the minister says we have cancelled the exams to start afresh. We will not accept that,” said protester Hussein Iftiin.
“We will not accept to redo this exam and we don’t want that. This is corruption which we have nothing to do with, it is them (the government) who have sold the exam and they have failed their responsibilities,” said Fadumo Hassan, a parent of one of the students.
The cancellation of exams affects some 31,000 students in country.