Ethiopia Shuts Down Internet Nationwide To Prevent Exam Leak

When it comes to being strict in Examination, Ethiopia has shown how determined they are in eliminating examination malpractice as they have taken serious measures to achieve this. For few years now, the country shuts down internet access in the whole country in order to discourage spreading and leaking of exam papers online. This is the third time the nation is embarking on this hard decision.

The country has closed its digital borders to prevent leaks during tests after papers were posted online by activists last year

Ethiopia has shut off internet access to its citizens, according to reports from inside the country, apparently due leaked exam papers for the nation’s grade 10 examinations.

Outbound traffic from Ethiopia was shutdown around 4pm UK time on Tuesday, according to Google’s transparency report, which registered Ethiopian visits to the company’s sites plummeting over the evening. By Wednesday afternoon, access still had not been restored.

Last year, activists leaked the papers for the country’s 12th grade national exams, calling for the postponement of the papers due to a school shutdown in the regional state of Oromia. Now, the government appears to have taken the move to shut down internet access as a preventative measure.

According to tweets from Mohammed Ademo
(@OPride)
"Ethiopia reportedly cutoff internet -for z 3rd time in 12 months -fearing activists will leak a scheduled national exam as they did last yr."

It’s the third time in a year that Ethiopia’s digital borders have been slammed shut. In July 2016, the government blocked a significant amount of traffic after university entrance exams were posted online; another block followed in August of that year.

The move is a common one across many developing nations: Algeria also blocked access to social media, in June last year, in an attempt to fight cheating in school exams. via