Five held over exam cheating

MUSANZE - Police yesterday arrested five people, including a medical doctor and a teacher, in connection with Senior Six examination malpractices. The suspects committed the alleged crimes in the Northern and Eastern provinces, and Kigali City, the Rwanda National Examination Council (RNEC) Executive Secretary John Rutayisire said. Senior Three and Senior Six candidates began their national examinations yesterday across the country. Over 85,000 students are sitting the examinations.In Musanze District, Northern Province two people including a medical doctor identified as Innocent Bimenyimana, 31, were held and immediately thrown behind bars in connection with examination malpractices. Bimenyimana is a doctor at Musanze Hospital. The other suspect is Teliphine S. Nirere, aged 32. They were both were arrested at EER Ruhengeri Examination Centre.In Eastern Province, police nabbed Juliet Mukagacinya, a teacher from Gatsibo District and Manuel Nsengiyumva, a private candidate at Nyagatare Examination Centre. Another unidentified suspect was arrested at St. Famille in Kigali City centrePolice said that Nirere who was the legitimate private candidate to sit nursing examination paper planned an impersonation plot with Bimenyimana.Nirere had been a practicing nurse at Gasiza Dispensary Centre in Kinigi Sector. She however doesn’t have the qualifications for such a job, which prompted her to hire Bimenyimana as a mercenary sit for her the nursing exams, a police officer in Musanze, said. Police said Nirere and Bimenyimana had similar registration number, 0403CL/SEF/017. Officials allege that the pair hatched the trick during RNEC’s registration exercise early this year. But supervisors bust their trickery during the examination when they found out Bimenyimana had written Nirere’s names on his answer sheets, police added.Nirere was seated behind Bimenyimana “pretending to answer some examination questions.”Rutayisire said that the two will soon be produced before the courts of law ‘because there is no more evidence needed beyond being caught red-handed.’ “We have the law that prescribes the punishment for such people. Let it take its course,” he said.He wondered how a qualified doctor opted to cheat for someone that was aspiring to become a professional in the same field.“That is absolute betrayal of life,” he charged.Ends