They will be unable to repeat the exam in the next two sessions.
Over 210,000 students took part in the Baccalaureate’s Romanian Language and Literature exam yesterday, 22,000 of them in Bucharest alone. This was the first written exam in this year’s summer session of the Baccalaureate and was marred by several attempts to commit fraud. Although the subjects that consisted of the works of famous Romanian writers such as Mircea Eliade, Nichita Stanescu and I.L. Caragiale were not very difficult, many students were “caught wrong footed.”
In Bucharest 18 students were eliminated for breaking the regulations. In other words, they were caught cheating, having mobile phones in the exam rooms or exchanging notes. According to the methodology of this year’s baccalaureate exam, those eliminated for cheating will not be able to repeat the exam in the autumn session, nor in the summer session next year.
In Cluj County two students were caught trying to cheat and were eliminated. One of them tried to copy the correct answers from a sheet of paper, the other from a digital watch capable of displaying Word documents. “Two students were eliminated for fraud. The teachers were vigilant and caught them,” Anca Hodorogea, head of the Cluj County School Inspectorate, stated for Mediafax.
In Hunedoara and Arad four students were caught trying to copy the answers from their mobile phone. Also yesterday, 33 students were caught trying to cheat in Drobeta Turnu Severin.
Funeriu: i notice that confidence in the Baccalaureate’s fairness grows
Education Minister Daniel Funeriu expressed his satisfaction with the fact that confidence in the Baccalaureate’s fairness has grown. “It’s something normal. (…) I’m glad, but I regret that these measures were not implemented 15-20 years ago because now there would have been so many young generations taught fairness,” Funeriu stated, being quoted by Mediafax. In his opinion, although young students are trying to cheat, the fact that they were caught is proof that the teachers too have understood just as well the need for normalcy within the system.
