It is the season for university admission exams in Sudan, and its authorities have taken an unusual step to counter the events of cheating.
Sudan’s government has ordered its mobile network providers to turn off cellular data during the three hours of tests, those of which have already started and will go on till the 24th of September. This will ensure a level playing ground for every student, and the entries will be entirely based on merit.
Sudan’s government has been using this technique to counter any protests against its administrative authorities, which helps them reduce the co-ordination between protesters and its wide-spread propaganda on social media. However, the South African country is using the same methodology for preventing happenings of cheating in entry exams for the very first time.
This cycle for disrupting the cellular data all across the country started on the 16th of September. The network providers began to get tons of complaints in no time, upon which they let people know that they are following state orders. Only then the public got to understand why they don’t have internet access despite paying their bills.
Three years ago, Sudanese authorities had to re-conduct entry exams due to extensive cheating as the paper got leaked online. It is the pretty much reason why they had to take such a step during exams going on these days.
Mobile data for around 13 million users get turned off from 8 am-11 am, leaving them isolated from the world-wide-web during this period. However, essential institution’s operations aren’t disrupted as they are backed by cable internet connections such as government institutions, money exchanges, and banks.
There are numerous ways to prevent cheating in exams that you might have heard of, but this one is so far the most extreme way to stop such happenings.