Grade 9 exams in Iraq

Iraq

21 August, 2023 01:00 - 05:00 (4 hours)

Local Impact

Government of Iraq is imposing daily shutdowns during second stage of grade 9 school exams on 21 August 2023. The 4 hour shutdowns of access to the Internet affects everyone in Iraq, except Kurdistan region which had its own shutdowns as reported here. The local government belief that this will reduce cheating during high school exams.

We have repeatedly written about here on Pulse, Internet shutdowns cause great harm to a country’s economy and society and are in our opinion NOT the appropriate mechanism to cope with potential exam cheating.

Data and Analysis

Government of Iraq is imposing daily shutdowns during second stage of grade 9 school exams. The 4 hour shutdowns of access to the Internet affects everyone in Iraq, except Kurdistan region which had its own shutdowns as reported here. The local government belief that this will reduce cheating during high school exams. The shutdown is visible on IODA graphs, Cloudflare Radar, and Google Transparency Report, as detailed in the graphs below.

Exam Schedule

Translated

Day	Exam
21 August 2023	Islamic Studies and Arabic Language
22 August 2023	English Language
23 August 2023	Mathematics
24 August 2023	Social Sciences
26 August 2023	Human and Health
27 August 2023	Chemistry
28 August 2023	Physics
29 August 2023	French/Kurdish/Turkmen Languages

IODA

Internet Connectivity for Iraq

Cloudflare Radar

Internet traffic trends in Iraq

Google Transparency Report

Product traffic in Iraq

Internet Shutdowns

Iraq