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Ethiopia Turns Off Internet Nationwide as Students Sit Exams (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the that's-one-way-to-do-it dept.

Ethiopia shut down the internet yesterday ahead of a scheduled national examination that is underway in the country today. Social media users noted that the internet service was interrupted from around 7 pm on Tuesday -- reportedly to prevent exam leaks. About 1.2 million students are taking the grade 10 national exams, with another 288,000 preparing for the grade 12 university entrance exams that will take place next week. From a report: Outbound traffic from Ethiopia was shutdown around 4pm UK time on Tuesday, according to Google's transparency report, which registered Ethiopian visits to the company's sites plummeting over the evening. By Wednesday afternoon, access still had not been restored. Last year, activists leaked the papers for the country's 12th grade national exams, calling for the postponement of the papers due to a school shutdown in the regional state of Oromia. Now, the government appears to have taken the move to shut down internet access as a preventative measure.

9 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. wrong problem by supernova87a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about they work on the correct problem? I don't think the internet spreading the leaked exams is the issue, it's that the exams are leaked...

    Might as well shut down electricity in the whole country to be absolutely sure, huh? Kind of a sign of a backwards government policy (or reflecting the lack of importance of internet/connectivity) when one small problem can cause a whole other system to be shut down...

  2. Not completely crazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is actually a really interesting way to solve a challenging problem (cheating). It's a little crazy, but it's a poor country. I don't completely oppose this. An education system with integrity is extremely important for a country.

    1. Re:Not completely crazy by Guybrush_T · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Plus, shutting down the internet may not make a huge difference. Less than 4% of the population has internet access.

    2. Re:Not completely crazy by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Funny

      This is actually a really interesting way to solve a challenging problem (cheating).

      Indeed. Also, thermonuclear weapons are a great way to get rid of pesky mosquitoes.

    3. Re:Not completely crazy by guises · · Score: 2

      I'm consistently impressed with how dedicated Africans seem to be to education. It perhaps over-emphasizes youth, but it does seem very forward thinking.

      (Albeit, it's probably unreasonable to lump all of Africa together. I'm sure there are some African countries / groups who don't give a shit about education.)

    4. Re:Not completely crazy by rkordmaa · · Score: 2

      It make sense to prioritize education. Lack of it is the main cause of their thousand problems and they can't fix any of them before they have the workforce educated enough to start fixing things. You can talk about reforms, industrialization, building infrastructure, developing economy and all that, but if people listening can't even read and write then its just plain waste of effort because it's never ever going to happen.

  3. How fucking stupid can they be? by ilsaloving · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously? Shut down the internet for the entire country, *just for exams*?

    Sweet pterodactyl projectile diarrhea on a dreidel, how many different kinds of wrong could have gone into a decision as boneheaded as that?

    Do businesses in Ethiopia not depend on the internet for anything?

    1. Re:How fucking stupid can they be? by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

      Seriously? Shut down the internet for the entire country, *just for exams*?

      In a lot of places, every student writes exams at the same time. Shutting down the internet for the 3-4 hours while every student writes exams is a cheap and easy way to keep them from cheating via Google.

      It's not feasible in most Western nations because there's rarely a time where every single student is taking an exam, but a lot of places (especially places following the old British education system) every student has to sit down and write one massive end of year exam that basically counts for all the marks. Cheating is rampant because in the final years those exams dictate the next phase in your life - do you head off and become a common labourer, do you get a scholarship and get to attend university overseas, or do you get post-secondary education locally? And yes, suicide is also rampant - students who feel they failed their parents (i.e., did not live up to expectations, which are often "overseas university full scholarship") often feel they can't face the shame (or punishment) of getting anything less.

      Hell, you know it's big when Amazon sells special "cheating watches" which are basically watches with an SD card slot - you load up the watch with your textbook and notes and such, and then wear it as a normal watch, but with the ability to skim through it like a mini eBook reader.

  4. Good idea but a bit overkill. by sproketboy · · Score: 2

    If you want to prevent cheating you could disable internet at the Universities themselves with various firewall techniques.