Discovery of 1600 Student Violations in Final Exams

The Deputy Minister of Secondary Education announced that 1600 students committed violations during the first round of final exams at various levels of secondary education. Mohammad Mahdi Kazemi also stated that the registration process for first and second secondary school students will continue until August 25. Kazemi emphasized that last year, 'we held the final exam in one grade, and the violations were more than this number recorded this year.' Education experts believe that this decrease only reflects a reduction in the detection of violations. They argue that the advancement of technology and Generation Z's proficiency in using technology, along with the traditional approach in the education network and the lack of updated skills training for teachers, has contributed to the reduced detection of violations. Additionally, a new regulation issued in April this year has also affected students' motivation to commit violations. According to this regulation, published by the state news agency IRNA on April 29, 'students can use the make-up exam for four final subjects with a score of 7 and above to graduate.' Consequently, students who previously could only take make-up exams in two final subjects and two non-final subjects were able to take make-up exams in four final subjects, which are the main criteria for assessing educational level, and pass. Some experts view this government action as a means to increase graduation rates and have warned about the noticeable decline in the quality of education. In this context, the Fars news agency reported on January 25, 2023, that the decline in the quality of the country's educational system is a crisis that experts and 'concerned advocates of the education system' have been discussing and expressing concern about for years. These concerns arose after the Ministry of Education released a report on the national average scores of twelfth-grade students in the final exams of June 2023. The official report from the Ministry of Education stated: 'The national average scores of students in the final exams of June 2023 were 11.23 in the experimental field, 10.79 in mathematics, 8.75 in humanities, and 10.56 in religious studies.'