Eight Arrested in Connection with Sale of Final Exam Questions in Iran

The Iranian Cyber Police, known as FATA, has announced the arrest of eight individuals "in connection with the sale of final exam questions on social media networks." A member of the Iranian parliament has also stated that the leak of high school final exam questions has been "confirmed." Jabbar Kouchakinejad, a member of the Education Commission of the parliament, told the Tasnim news agency on July 4 that this commission held a meeting with education officials, FATA police, and student guardians, and it was "determined that the questions had been leaked." According to Kouchakinejad, the leak of the final exam questions for secondary education is "certain." Colonel Hossein Ramazani, the legal deputy of FATA, also confirmed that "in one of the southern provinces, the actual questions have been leaked." This police official stated that other cases in cyberspace, apart from "one of the small counties in the southern province," were with "fraudulent intent." The name of the county and province where the final exam questions were leaked has not been disclosed. Meanwhile, it is unclear how widespread the leaked questions were. Previously, some Telegram channels had published images and videos claiming that questions from some high school final exams were released and sold before the exams. At the end of June, a number of students protested the leak of the questions by signing and sending a letter of complaint to the Ministry of Education. Several media outlets in Iran reported that questions from Arabic, Persian language, biology, chemistry, physics, and religious studies were leaked. A group of protesting students has demanded that the average score coefficient in the university entrance exam not be considered. Jabbar Kouchakinejad also referred to the importance of this coefficient and the leak of the questions. In Iran, the total score calculation for candidates in the university entrance exam considers 25% from the final exam score of the third year of high school and 75% from the entrance exam score. Hamid Mirzadeh, the spokesperson for the Education and Research Commission of the parliament, stated that "these violations did not affect the exams... this has not been the case." However, Kouchakinejad mentioned that there is no accurate statistic on whether the leak of the questions was widespread or only in a few counties and southern provinces.