IT IS common knowledge that the objective of an examination is to assess pupils' understanding of academic work taught to them throughout the year.

IT IS common knowledge that the objective of an examination is to assess pupils' understanding of academic work taught to them throughout the year.

Logically, unsatisfactory exam results underline their failure to meet this criterion and prove their unreadiness to proceed to the next grade.

Prompting the topic is the saga of failed pupils at a North West school, who were exposed by this newspaper yesterday as having bribed teachers so they could be promoted to a higher class.

Needless to say, the scam is not dissimilar to the widely condemned "pass one, pass all" slogan propagated by student leaders in the 1980s to force education authorities to condone failed pupils by allowing them to proceed to a higher class.

Both undermine the integrity of examinations while bringing the education system into disrepute.

Teachers behind the scam must not only have their licences to teach revoked, but sent to jail to join their fellow common criminals.