19 French high school students arrested for leaking math questions

On July 2-3, French police arrested 19 high school students in Marseille and Paris (France) to investigate the case of thousands of students sharing leaked math exam questions via text messages and WhatsApp application.

Seven have been released, but 12 remain in custody and could face cheating charges, the Paris prosecutor's office said. However, France's education authorities have decided not to cancel the exams because about half of the 740,000 high school students have already finished them.

In parallel with the exam paper leak, French Education Minister Jean Michel Blanquer is now facing another crisis as teachers who marked exams in some regions have threatened to withhold their grades in protest at the reform of the baccalaureate exam from 2021. This affects 108,000 out of 4 million exams.

Teachers are trying to persuade the government to reopen talks on reforming final exams from 2021, demanding more continuous assessment and less reliance on exams. Thousands of French people have also taken to the streets in recent months to “cry” for exams.

Mr Blanquer said he had spoken to the teachers, saying "this is completely against the principles of community service and there will be severe financial penalties". Some sources said Mr Blanquer threatened to cut two weeks' pay for these teachers.

This is not the first time that France has leaked exam papers. A similar incident happened in 2011, on an Internet forum.

The French baccalaureate is notoriously difficult, based on the exam structure from the Napoleonic era in 1808, and covers science, economics, social sciences, literature, and philosophy. To be admitted to university, French students take the exam (held in June) and receive a baccalaureate (high school diploma).