MPs Serge Torsarkissian and Nadim Gemayel submitted last week a law draft to cancel the Brevet official exams. Their argument is that the certificate no longer matches the development pace of the curriculum in Lebanese schools. I am for cancelling the Brevet exams as long as they are replaced by another type of exam or middle-year programs.
However, the real problem in Lebanon is not with the exam itself but with the widespread cheating during officials exams. When I was presenting my Brevet, I gave everyone in the classroom my answers and took some guy’s paper and did it for him because the instructor “kindly” asked me to. I’m not proud of what I did but I was forced to and we all knew that it was ok to cheat. We weren’t even scared that we’d get caught in the process and I’m sure things have only gotten worse ever since.
This “open-cheating” syndrome is the real problem in our educational system and should have been the primary concern of Lebanese schools and our Education Minister. It is important to understand what motivates students to be dishonest and to punish harshly teachers that encourage them to cheat and commit unethical acts.