Ethiopian government denies new exam paper leak

Africa News Agency

ADDIS ABABA – The Ethiopian government has denied reports that the question papers for last month’s high school leaving exams were leaked beforehand.

The ministry of education said it would start posting the results of the exams this month.

In May, apparent leaks on social media of exam questions caused a scandal prompting the government to cancel the exams nationwide, costing it millions of US dollars, and forcing a rare official apology from the minister of education Shiferaw Shigute. About 800,000 students had sat for the high school leaving exams.

The high school leaving exams were eventually rerun last month, but not before the government imposed a five-day social media blackout to avoid a possible repetition of the exam leak and to help students avoid being “distracted”.

However, rumours surfaced on social media that the papers had once again been leaked. This is what the government denied this week.

Back in May, online activists claiming to represent the Oromo ethnic group, claimed responsibility for the leak, which they said they had done because they said the government had refused to postpone the exams.

They said this disadvantaged Oromo students whose class attendance was severely affected by months of unrest in Oromiya.

Protests broke out in November in Oromiya, the largest and most economically important state in the federation over plans to expand the boundaries of the nation’s capital Addis Ababa into neighbouring Oromo farmland.