Legal action over bac question leak
Teachers say maths exam should have been cancelled after part of the test paper was published the night before
AN ANONYMOUS web user is facing three years in prison and a €9,000 fine for leaking one of the questions in a baccalauréat exam online.
The education ministry has begun legal action over the leak, which appeared in an online forum on Monday evening, the day before the maths exam for 165,000 students taking the science path.
The blurry photo shows the first of four questions in the exam. The user, writing under the pseudonym Chaldeen, said: "I already have my bac, so I'm here to help you out." The site owner removed the post after it was alerted to the leak.
Education minister Luc Chatel decided not to cancel the test - but the leaked question, which was worth 20% of the total paper, will not be marked. The other three questions will be given more marks to make up the difference.
Teachers' unions said the exam should have been cancelled, because those who cheated would have had more time to spend on the other three questions, which were considered more difficult.
Many candidates fear they will have to resit, because they fared less well in the rest of the exam.
Students' body UNL said the episode demonstrated the need for an urgent reform of the bac system. It said it was unfair that the qualification was based solely on the results of the final exams.
According to radio station RTL, the maths test is not the only one to have been leaked. It says some of the questions from the English and physics exams were also leaked by text message.
