Students who walked out of Greek exam to have another chance  

Over 250 final year high school students who left without taking the Modern Greek exam on Monday after it was interrupted when the topics were leaked will be allowed to retake it at the end of the month, the government decided on Wednesday.

The education ministry said the 257 students will have the opportunity to participate in the second series of examinations, scheduled for January 31, together with those who were missing on an excused absence.

It added that the exam was held with an hour delay at 11.30am with the participation of 6,781 in 63 schools. There were 66 excused absences.

Regarding the other students who attended but later left, the ministry said these come from only three schools. An investigation will be carried out to determine the circumstances under which the students left instead of participating in the written exam.

The exam questions were leaked before the first twice-yearly exam on Monday morning by a private school teacher who sent a social media message to a student. The topics were leaked to other students before many had even left for school to sit the exam. In the message, the teacher said the paper was not easy and mentioned what was included in it.

The ministry, who said it was informed about the leak an hour before the exam, investigated the claim and immediately gave instructions for the exam to stop.

This was about 30 minutes after students had started the exam.

Students were then halted and proceeded with a different exam at 11.30am, despite teachers and students calling for the exam to be postponed to a later date.

After the end of the exam, students told reporters that some of them lost their train of thought and found it more challenging to concentrate on the new exam while others had managed to complete a large part of the previous one.

The education ministry said it has sought the input of the legal service on how to handle the case against the teacher. The private school where the teacher is employed is also conducting its own investigation.