Suspect arrested as ministry, teachers syndicate continue trading blame on exam leak

AMMAN — Authorities have arrested a man who is believed to be involved in the leak of test papers of the unified Education Ministry exams for sixth and ninth graders, an official source said Monday.

“The person, who owns a book and stationery shop in Zarqa, leaked copies of the exams and sold them to students,” Education Ministry Spokesperson Walid Jallad told The Jordan Times. 

While 320,000 sixth and ninth graders were sitting for their first unified Arabic and English exams last week, copies of the test papers went viral on news websites and social media networks.

The ministry held the unified exams in English, Arabic, science and maths, in a bid to measure students’ abilities and identify any weaknesses.

Jallad noted that security authorities are still looking for other suspects who leaked or facilitated the purchase of the test papers.

In previous remarks to The Jordan Times, he noted that the ministry will be able to identify the schools that are involved in leaking the exam papers through analysing the results of students in each school and to what extent they match the model answers. 

Although the ministry and eyewitnesses say that teachers are also to blame for circulating the leaked exam, the Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) continues to dismiss such accusations.

“If the ministry’s measures were solid, no one would have been able to tamper with the exam,” JTA Spokesperson Ayman Okour said on Monday, reiterating that many parties were involved in preparing for the exam, starting from printing the papers, sealing them in envelopes and distributing them to schools.

Hiba Qasrawi, whose son is a ninth grader, noted that it “would be totally unfair to count the results of the exam, especially since there are students who received copies of beforehand”.

“We did not know about the leak before the start of the exam. Nader returned home in tears as most of his peers had copies of the exam and the model answers. This is unfair,” Qasrawi told The Jordan Times.

However, the ministry reassured the public that the main purpose of the unified exam this year was “experimental” and that schools are responsible for giving students 60 per cent of their grades based on their own tests, while 40 per cent will be based on the ministry’s tests.