Russian Unified School Exam questions leak into social networks

Russian schoolchildren downloaded pictures of their Unified State Exam papers on Monday on the popular social network Vkontakte, the Russian version of Facebook. More than one hundred photos of questions were posted while an exan was in progress, the Russian website Lenta.ru reports.

All the schoolchildren signed their photos with appeals for help. The members of the community, where the photos were downloaded, suggested answers and ways of solving the questions.

“The photos were signed with the messages like “Help! Urgently!” or “Please, help! I’m taking an exam right now”. A spokesman of Russian Educational Service Sergey Shatunov said. “Also, the schoolchildren were trying to take pictures of their papers in ways that they would not be identified. They tried to cover registration numbers with papers or pencils. However, I’m sure that we will find a guilty schoolchild in 99 per cent of incidents.”

“We are surprised at how the teachers and invigilators from the Ministry of Education and Science let the children use mobile phones and the internet,” he added.

A pilot version of the Unified State Exam was first introduced in 2001 in some parts of Russia. In 2009 all school leavers around the country will have to take two obligatory exams – Russian and mathematics, and also can choose more subjects depending on what career they are planning.