Vocational school students in Anbar protest exam results, demand re-evaluation

RAMADI, Iraq — Vocational school students in Anbar province staged a protest after exam results were released, saying they received zero marks in several core subjects and calling for their answer sheets to be re-evaluated. Student Shima Majid of Ramadi Vocational School said her overall grade average was above 98 percent, yet she received zeros in three exam subjects. Majid estimated that around 150 students in Anbar faced the same outcome and claimed similar cases occurred in other cities, urging authorities to open and review the exam papers. Fellow student Zainab Qasim said she received zero marks in mathematics and English, arguing that the problem was not limited to Ramadi and had spread to other regions. The students said the exam questions were easy and expected results to be high, making the zero grades difficult to understand. They called on the Ministry of Education and relevant authorities to re-evaluate the answer sheets so that the time and effort they invested in preparing for the exams would not be lost.