Kuwait: Ten lawmakers on Sunday demanded the National Assembly convene a special session to debate a school exam cheating scandal in which as many as 40,000 students benefited. The request to hold the special session was filed following a meeting of the Assembly’s education committee with senior officials of the education ministry, who told the panel they learned about the scandal only from the media, head of the committee MP Hamad Al-Matar said.

Matar called on HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah to dismiss all senior officials of the education ministry including the undersecretary and assistant undersecretaries who briefed the panel on the issue. Authorities have uncovered a network of some 17 people, including 11 teachers, who leaked questions of the higher secondary exams that were held a few weeks ago. According to reports, the network leaked the questions and answers to students through WhatsApp and other means.

The leak happened despite strict procedures adopted by the education ministry in sending out the questions to a large number of exam centers. Matar described the cheating as an “ongoing process of destroying the people of Kuwait”, adding that cheating in exams has become a “culture” in the country and must be fought. He said the special session is scheduled to debate a draft law that aims at eliminating cheating at school exams by imposing a jail term of up to seven years for those who leak and distribute questions to students.

In their request to convene a special Assembly session to discuss cheating in schools, the lawmakers said they wanted the debate to inquire about government policies on fighting cheating in exams. They said they also want to inquire about reports alleging that some private schools help their students in exams to raise the success percentage to boost the image of the schools.