Students take entrance exams for nursing and laboratory courses in medical schools last year. UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has condemned the use of fake high school certificates to sit for entrance exams for medical courses and called on the authorities to take legal action on those involved.
The call comes after 43 applicants were found to have allegedly submitted fake high school diploma certificates to take entrance exams for nursing and laboratory courses in medical schools.
Education ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha said on April 5 that the ministry is looking into the case.
“The ministry condemns any act of faking public documents. We are looking into this issue and we appeal to the authorities to take legal action against the individuals involved,” Soveacha said.
Hing Thoraxy, secretary of state at Council of Ministers, who is also the head of national-level exam committee for health sector, issued a letter on March 30 to expel the students from the exam candidates list for the foundation year and first year of bachelor’s degree and associate degree in Nurse and Technical Laboratory.
The students had used the fake high school certificates to take entrance exams in the medical sector at various universities and institutions from 2019 to 2020.
“Even though they passed those exams, their names must be removed,” Thoraxy said.
According to the list, 28 students submitted certificates to sit for the Associate in Nurse exam, seven for Associate of Technical Laboratory, four for Associate of Dental, Associate of Midwives (three), and Bachelor of Medical Doctor (one).
On April 5, Transparency International Cambodia executive director Pech Pisey said the Ministry of Health and the education ministry must ensure that the exam process is conducted with credibility to ensure that candidates meet the requirement.
He said a credible exam would select good candidates to study medical subjects and become doctors and nurses according to their skills.
“This is especially important in the health sector because this sector deals with matters of life and death, and public health,” Pisey said.
He said only qualified candidates should pass the exams, especially when the “quality of the health sector is limited”.
Pisey was also of the view that public officials in the sector might be allegedly involved in the activity.
“I think if we can find out they committed the [document] falsification, the investigation should go further to find others who could be involved to deter this from happening in future exams. I think more people are involved in this case other than the students,” he said.
