Bangladesh exam answers sent to students’ ‘watches’

BANGLADESH: Exam cheats in Bangladesh have been caught receiving answers on mobile phones disguised as wrist watches, police said on Tuesday after busting a criminal racket in Dhaka.

Officers paraded ten hand-cuffed masterminds behind the scheme along with several of the electronic devices that had been used in university admission exams and in job application tests.

The criminal organisers bribed teachers or education officials to get the questions shortly before the tests, and then sent the answers via text message to students inside the exam hall, police said.

“A student in a test for a top university or recruitment to a bank or government office would get answers through this hi-tech device after paying 120,000 taka ($1,500) or more,” deputy police commissioner Moshiur Rahman told AFP.

The gang leaders told police they had brought 120 pieces of the tailor-made device from China and has been renting them out since 2009.

“Many teachers and officials are on their payroll. Once they get the test papers, experts would solve the questions in minutes and then send them to clients,” he said.

Mobile phones are banned in exam halls in Bangladesh, but watches are allowed.

AFP