AI cheating, leaked papers and marking errors: how exam protests went global

Cockroach Janta party supporters in Mumbai, India, celebrate the resignation of the education minister following protests over an exam paper leak that affected millions of students. Cockroach Janta party supporters in Mumbai, India, celebrate the resignation of the education minister following protests over an exam paper leak that affected millions of students. F amilies with teenagers in education know the private, hidden pain of exam season. But this year, what might have been a summer of quiet family anxiety has erupted in several countries into public unrest. Exam-related turmoil has led to mass student protests in Mexico after nearly 60,000 university applicants were forced to resit tests amid suspected cheating, while Portugal's disastrous attempt to digitise school exam marking sparked the country's worst education crisis in decades. By far the largest and most ground-shaking incident was in India, however, where an exam paper leak affected millions of students and was linked to more than a dozen students taking their own lives.