Syria General School Examinations

Syrian Arab Republic (the)

31 May, 2021 01:00 - 22 June, 2021 07:30 (22 days)

Local Impact

The shutdown affected all Leased Lines and ADSL customers. The Ministry of Education announced the shutdown ahead of time, and state-owned operator Syrian Telecom issued a notice that Internet service will be cut from 31 May to 22 June 2021, between 04:00 to 08:30 local time (UTC+3), noting that this may be extended until 10:30.

The Syrian government has unplugged the Internet every year during student exams since 2016, after exam questions began appearing on social media. Yet there is growing evidence that shutdowns are an ineffective way to prevent cheating, as questions still get leaked in spite of an Internet blackout.

Data and Analysis

The Syrian government is continuing a tradition of shutting down Internet access during general school examinations. The shutdowns are expected to follow this schedule between 31st May and 22nd June 2021.

The timing of the shutdown is expected to reflect the time needed to distribute physical copies of exam questions to examination centers between 4:30 and 8:00 am local time, followed by mobile data shutdown for the duration of the exam.

The schedule above matches Scientific and Literary streams schedule published by the Syrian Ministry of Education:

IODA signals source

Google Transparency Report

Product traffic in Syria

Conversations

قطع الإنترنت في #سوريا اليوم بالتزامن مع امتحانات الثانوية العامة، وهي عادة جرت عليها السلطات منذ عام 2016 بحجة "مكافحة الغش وتسريب الأسئلة".
استمر قطع الإنترنت 5.5 ساعات، من 4 فجراً إلى 8:20 صباحاً، ويتوقع تكرار الأمر حتى انتهاء الامتحانات في 22 حزيران 2020.#لا_لقطع_الاتصالات https://t.co/5c3mZr3vtO

— SMEX (@SMEX) May 31, 2021

Internet Shutdowns

Syrian Arab Republic (the)