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Students in the Philippines have taken to wearing ‘anti-cheating’ hats to stop them peeking at other test papers during exams, pictures have shown.
Teachers at a school in Legazpi City told their students to wear the headgear to ensure ‘integrity and honesty’ in their exams, but gave them permission to ‘go wild’ when it came to selecting what they could use.
The pupils responded in kind, creating their own home-made ‘devices’ to cover their heads out of egg boxes, cardboard and other recycled materials, as well as Halloween masks and motorcycle helmets.
Pictured: Students in the Philippines have taken to wearing ‘anti-cheating’ hats to stop them peeking at other test papers during exams
Professor Mandane-Ortiz, who was the one to give her student permission to ‘go wild’ with their choice of headgear, saw the funny side.
She posted pictures from he classroom at Bicol University College of Engineering which subsequently went viral, sparking much hilarity.
Mandane-Ortiz told the BBC that she had been looking for a ‘fun way’ to ensure there was no cheating in the classroom, adding her method had been ‘really effective’.
The students were taking recent mid-term exams at the college, held in the third week of October, when they deployed their anti-cheating contraptions.
Pictures show the students sitting over their exam papers wearing dozens of unique, home-made head gear. Some are seen wearing motorcycle helmets with the visors down. Others have egg cartons strapped to their head.
One student can be seen with a large paper-made box, which when placed on his head almost touches the desk he is writing on.
Teachers at a school in Legazpi City told their students to wear the headgear to ensure ‘integrity and honesty’ in their exams, but gave them permission to ‘go wild’ when it came to selecting what they could use. Pictured: Students wear masks during their exams
Several students are shown wearing Halloween masks, including a ‘scream’ mask, a plague doctor mask, and a mask known for being worn in Netflix’s ‘Money Heist’. He also had ‘Midterm Heist’ written on paper around his head.
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Others can be seen wearing large hats, or sunglasses, or paper taped to either side of their heads to block their peripheral vision.
One girl attached yellow paper to hat, with two flaps either side. She put lollipops inside the rim of the hat, and wrote on the paper: ‘Lollipop: 1 peso’.
Several students are shown wearing Halloween masks, including a ‘scream’ mask, a plague doctor mask, and a mask known for being worn in Netflix’s ‘Money Heist’ (left)
Mandane-Ortiz said she initially told students to make something ‘simple’. She told the BBC she was inspired by a technique she had seen used in Thailand.
In 2013, a picture showing students taking exams in Bangkok while wearing ‘ear flaps’ – sheets of paper attached either side of their head.
The professor said once given the idea, her engineer students ran with it, creating the array of headgear. In some cases, she said, they put something together in a matter of minutes with any junk they could find.
Mandane-Ortiz’s posts to Facebook went viral, reportedly inspiring other schools in the Philippines to recreate her idea in their own classrooms.
She said her students performed better in their exams this year, and that none of them were found to be cheating.
According to The Strait Times, Mandane-Ortiz said she was proud of her students.
‘I really love and [I’m] proud of my students because their engineering mid-term exam s can be pressuring and stressful, yet they managed to add some colour and fun,’ she was quoted as saying by the paper.
‘Thank you very much, students. You make me proud,’ she added.
