In Lesotho, students and schools acquire their reputations based mostly on their national exam results. Students take these exams at the end of 7th, 10th, and 12th grades, and they are commonly referred to as the Standard 7, Junior Certificate (JC), and Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC) exams respectively. The Standard 7 and JC exams are created and graded entirely within Lesotho.
However, the COSC exam comes from England, though it is graded by examiners within Lesotho. It is the same exam that is administered in many other countries around the world whose second language is English (e.g. Singapore and Botswana). And the exam tests all sorts of subjects, from English to Math, Biology to Agriculture, Business, and even Sesotho. A student's performance on the COSC exam determines his future in higher education like the SAT score and GPA of an American student. Likewise, the status of a school in Lesotho is largely built on the results it produces in national exams such as the COSC.
Last year's 12th graders should have received their COSC scores by now, enabling them to size up their options in higher education, the workforce, and generally move on with their lives, but the scores for students around the entire nation have been suspended due to ongoing investigations. A bunch of people cheated, though reports in the newspapers and on radio here disagree about who constitutes that bunch. Is it only students, or also examination officials up to the highest echelon? No matter, it's disgusting. Particularly because many schools accused are the nation's top performers in past years. And further, the Minister of Education, one Kenneth Tsekoa, says those found guilty may be let off with a 'stern warning'.