Prime Minister Hun Sen commended the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the capital and provincial authorities for their efforts at running the high school diploma, or Bac II exams, smoothly on December 27-28.
Hun Sen said on January 3 during the ground-breaking ceremony to upgrade National Road 48 in Koh Kong province that according to a report he had received from Minister of Education, Youth and Sport Hang Chuon Naron, more than 8,000 professors from all over the country were marking the examination papers, while nine of them recently tested positive for Covid-19.
“I am happiest about the fact that out of more than 115,000 students who took the exam, only three have tested positive for Covid-19,” he said, adding that two of the three positive students were infected with the Omicron variant when they were abroad competing in a martial arts tournament.
Hun Sen said that the examination papers were taken to Phnom Penh for grading. The nine infected professors have been kept in quarantine, but have not developed serious health problems. Of those nine, three are from Phnom Penh, three from Pursat, one from Battambang, one from Stung Treng and one from Koh Kong, but all of them are convalescing in the capital where they had gone to grade exams.
“We’ve got to stay careful about this, but this is good news and I commend the efforts by all capital and provincial authorities for facilitating our high school diploma exams,” Hun Sen said.
Chuon Naron on January 2 arrived at the grading centre to inspect the process of marking the exam papers as the work was already underway. The Anti-Corruption Unit also joined the ministry and helped with efforts to curb irregularities and prevent cheating of any kind.
Education ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha said on January 3 that at present the grading of the examination papers was on schedule to be completed on time. The marking of the papers was scheduled to take place January 3-5.
The ministry said that each exam centre held a meeting to remind the proctors of their ethical and professional obligations in order to ensure that the principles of law, justice and transparency would be respected and the results of the exam would be accepted as valid by all other educational institutions or employers.
The exam results will be announced in Phnom Penh and Kandal province on the afternoon of January 18 and for the other provinces on January 19.
The results will be also posted at the education ministry’s Facebook page: @moeys.gov.kh
