Morocco: Cheating Students Face up to One Year in Prison

PERSISMA, Rabat – Moroccan parliament is discussing a proposed law that will punish students for cheating on exams with a sentence of up to a year in prison.

Now that exams in high schools, universities and Moroccan institutes are only a month and half away, the Committee of Education, Culture and Communication held a general debate on Wednesday about the proposed law, by which students caught in the act of cheating on exams, will face prison sentences.

The Moroccan government has already defined cheating on exams as “a form of fraud and deception in school exams, to get a certificate or national diplomas.”

According to the law, anyone caught in the act of cheating or aiding in the process will face from one month to one year of prison, and a fine ranging from MAD 5,000 to 10,000.

If adopted, the law will be applicable in all schools, universities, institutions and private schools all over the country.

In addition to the traditional means of cheating on exams, the suggested law considers the use of or even possession of any electronic device that could be used for the purpose (whether on or off) of cheating a punishable offense.

The project law stated that teachers who were in charge of the invigilation of students during exams “should address a first warning, [and] if the act is repeated, then the teacher should withdraw the examination paper and write a report of the heating case accompanied with the tools used for the purpose.”

In previous years, the Ministry of Education’s measures to fight cheating on exams proved unsuccessful amid advanced techniques employed by students to cheat on exams and the leaks of examination papers before the date of the exams.

Social media networks such as Facebook were exploited to post answers to exam questions from collaborators outside the classrooms. (Larbi Arbaoui)