RIYADH, 27 May — A school in Surat Obeida in southern Saudi Arabia was broken into and question papers for the yearend examinations were stolen, informed sources told Arab News. Authorities have ordered an investigation.
The sources said the thieves who stole the papers wanted to leak the questions.
The theft was discovered last Wednesday when authorities noticed broken locks on the school’s main gate and the door of the office, where the question papers were kept.
The authorities established that the question papers for all the examinations scheduled for this week for boys’ schools had been stolen. Three papers for the third year secondary girls had also been removed.
According to an official in charge of girls’ education at the Ministry of Education, the ministry did not replace the questions for girls’ schools because of time constraints.
However, Dr. Muhammad Al-Ruwaished, assistant minister for students’ affairs, said the ministry has made arrangements to replace the other stolen questions. “We have already issued replacements for the questions which were leaked,” he pointed out.
“The ministry keeps alternative sets of questions papers ready for use in emergency situations like this. They are at the same level of original questions,” he said.
The questions are normally distributed to schools through the education departments in various regions on the day of the exam, but schools in remote areas are given the questions a week in advance. There had been complaints on a number of occasions that question papers were leaked from these schools.
“Obviously, those who have stolen the question papers had received information when they were handed over to the school authorities (in Surat Obeida),” he said.
Al-Ruwaished denied reports that the questions distributed on the first day of the examinations were repeats of the originals. “They were in fact from our reserves,” he explained.
He said investigations were under way into the circumstances that led to the theft. “We will do whatever is necessary to prevent such incidents in the future,” he added.
He said education officials and examiners had pointed out that the replacement questions distributed on the first day of examinations did not pose any problems to the students.
“We’ll not give extra time for answering the questions,” he said.
The ministry prepares three types of questions — difficult ones, moderate ones and simple ones — and later mix them.
But many students complained that the replacement questions for mathematics were unusually tough.
“We did not expect that the questions would be this tough,” Misaab Al-Subaie, a Grade III secondary school student said. “This is not just my opinion; all the students in our school have the same view. Even the teacher shares our view,” he told Al-Yaum newspaper.
About five million school and university students are sitting the final examinations, which began on Saturday under the supervision of the ministries of education and higher education.
