It’s gradually becoming a norm for African nations to mute social media access during crucial events. DR Congo, Algeria, Sudan, and Benin all muted social media connectivity during anti-government protests and elections. Meanwhile, Chad has not had access to social networks for over a year. Somalia has joined the trend in order to stop student’s examination malpractice.
Somalia postponed its national high school exams after they discovered that the exam papers were been distributed on social media. Somalia’s Education Minister, Abdullahi Godah Barre announced that any exams that have already been taken have been canceled. The cancellation caused unrest amongst high school students and resulted in a protest. This is because they have been sitting for the exam since the 11th of May 2019 and were supposed to finish on the 18th of May 2019. The cancellation affected over 31,000 students.
BREAKING Education Minister Abdullahi Godah and police boss' attempts to address rioting students in #Mogadishu fail after the students shouted them down #Somalia pic.twitter.com/ePX5XqXXwH
— DalsanTV (@DalsanTv) May 14, 2019
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The government postponed the exams to the 27th of May, to end on the 31st of May 2019. However, during the cause of the exam, all social media platform will be disabled. This is not the first time that social networks will be disabled in the country, as Somaliland ‘the self-declared republic’ in northwestern Somalia shut down social media access during its election in 2017.
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