Cambodia Bans 17 Acts of Misconduct in High School Exit Exams; Minister Directs Strict Implementation

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports has reiterated its call to candidates participating in the High School Exit Exam (Bak Doep), scheduled for August 10, to strictly adhere to the regulations and discipline of the examination to ensure its smooth, fair, transparent, and integrity-driven conduct. On July 15, the Ministry issued a decree on regulations and disciplinary limits for candidates in the High School Exit Exam. Chapter 3, Article 5, specifies 17 points that candidates must not do during the examination process. Prohibited actions include arriving at the examination center after the second bell, wearing military uniforms, bringing books and document copies into the center, and carrying weapons, mobile phones, any type of electronic device, calculators, watches with calculator functions, smart glasses, bags, handbags, packets, and white correction fluid into the examination room. Candidates are also forbidden from entering the examination room before being called by the invigilator, using inappropriate language or behavior, causing disturbances or threatening other candidates, refusing or resisting examination officials during searches for prohibited items, damaging the order of the examination or the reputation of the examination committee, writing on answer sheets without the invigilator's signature, copying exam questions onto other papers or taking them out of the room, standing up or moving from their seats without permission, reading answers aloud to disturb others, snatching or manipulating other candidates' answer sheets, making identifying marks on answer sheets, hiding or tearing up answer sheets, damaging examination room materials, or having someone else take the exam or complete their answer sheets. Furthermore, on July 14, the Ministry held a meeting focusing on strengthening key implementation tasks, including the principles and procedures of the exam, important dates for this year's exam, the number of candidates, examination center supervision, the organization of examination committees and various commissions, the preparation of minimal assistants nationwide, examination papers, inter-ministerial and institutional cooperation, ensuring the score aggregation system, examination materials, equipment, and budget, preparing monitoring and information gathering mechanisms, and preparing for the marking process. The Ministry continues to strengthen the examination preparation mechanism to ensure the process is conducted fairly and transparently, upholding the principle of "those who know will pass."