Technology has played a big role in promoting exam irregularities in Kenya. This is due to various ways that students and rogue teachers have implemented with the help of technology to cheat. Technology has made it easier for many students to access exams within a short period of time.
According to a report by the Education Committee in the National Assembly, Committee Confirms Cheating In 2022 Exams, Gives Recommendations they confirmed that students used technology in cheating. Here’s how.
Students used apps to transmit exams from one place to another, one student to another and one school to another. Apps like Signal and Telegram that are complex to trace were used. This means that the perpetrators cannot be brought to book.
The use of these apps have posed a challenge because the source of information is untraceable. They cannot use a digital footprint to get the source. This thus shows how these apps were critical and will be critical in aiding students to cheat in exams.
Availability of answers in google is also how tech is used in schools to aid in cheating. Students smuggle phones into classrooms and with the help of someone outside the room, they can be helped to get answers into the exam room. Invigilators have to be extra vigilant to ensure that students don’t take advantage of technology to cheat their way to University.
Use of ChatGPT and other AI bots to write essays. According to this, students feed the bot on the information they need written down and the bot provides a unique essay for them. This makes the examiner think that the student did the work only to realise that bots did the work.
SMS is also another way that has been confirmed to be a way students use to cheat. With the help of phones, they can transmit messages from one student to another sharing answers. Students can be cheeky and if not well invigilated, they can pull moves you don’t expect.
Use of smart watch is another way students cheat. With smart watch, they can use it as a phone. They can transmit and receive information without the exam supervisors noticing. Disguised as normal watches which in reality is a smart watch that can relay information.
Everything has been made easier by technology. That includes good and bad things. Exam Cheating is one of the bad things that technology has aided in pushing forward. Relevant bodies should partner and ensure a long lasting solutions are introduced to curb technology in cheating.