The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has declared that the protest over the recent Grade 12 national examination results has been resolved after a reassessment of examination papers maintained the same scores.

“The Grade 12 national examinations result, which were announced on September 9 and 10, corresponded to the four examination principles – law, justice, transparency and validity,” the announcement read.

Responding to the students’ complaints, the ministry had instructed the appointed teachers to mark the examination papers again, the ministry said.

It said some of the protesting students passed the exam, but they were unhappy with the grades for some subjects and with the overall grade.

Students who failed the examination requested the ministry mark their papers for all subjects again.

One day after the examination result was announced, more than 150 candidates held a protest demanding the ministry re-examine their papers.

Lin Soleakpagna, a female candidate who failed the examination, told The Post on Monday that it is pointless for her to continue protesting because the ministry has announced that the results remain unchanged.

Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association president Ouk Chhayavy told The Post on Monday that she accepted the ministry’s announcement because Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron had stated that there would be no technical errors in this year’s examination.

However, some students who were not satisfied with their results wanted the ministry to re-examine and rescore the papers.

“If the ministry said it had ordered a re-examination of the papers and there is no need to change the results, it means the first round of marking the papers was conducted in a professional manner.

“Nevertheless, every year there will be students that are dissatisfied with their results. The reason could be that the ministry has been reforming the education system and raised the examination standards.

“Students who are not aware of the raised standards may believe that they should not have failed the subjects they are good at,” Chhayavy said.

The ministry first conducted the examination in 2014 and two examinations were held in that year.

Last year, there was a technical error affecting the results and the ministry explained that it was due to a computer error. Consequently, it affected the results of the mathematics examination.

“The ministry should be more responsible and pay more attention to the entire teaching force’s professionalism. This will ensure the same mistakes do not recur, which is the reason why the public lost trust in the Kingdom’s education system,” said Chhayavy.

This year’s examination saw more than 117,000 candidates sit for the various papers in 202 examination centres. The ministry said more than 79,000 candidates, or 68 per cent of the total, passed. This was an increase of 1.5 per cent on last year’.

Of the candidates who passed, 443 obtained Grade As, compared to last year’s 408 candidates.