300,000 Algerian students to resit exams after leak

ALGIERS: More than 300,000 Algerian students will have to resit their final exams next week after seven were leaked online, the education minister said on Monday.

Nouria Benghebrit broke down in tears in public last week when she was told of the cheating at the exams high school students must pass before they can enrol in university.

Authorities have opened an investigation to find out how questions to seven tests were leaked online.

Dozens of people have already been questioned, including officials from the state board of examinations.



Benghebrit said 300,000 students out of the 800,000 who sat the "baccalaureate" final exams last week would have to undergo new testing on June 19.

They would be tested again for the seven exams leaked online, she said.

The leaks sparked outrage in Algeria, with Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal vowing to punish those behind the cheating.

Ahmed Ouyahia, who heads the office of the president, described the leaks as a "plot" against Benghebrit who was appointed minister of education in 2014.

A trained sociologist, Benghebrit has angered conservatives in Algeria by proposing to reform the education system in the North African nation.