JAPAN COMPUTER WITH EXAM INFORMATION STOLEN FROM COLLEGE PC with college entrance exam data stolen : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

PC with college entrance exam data stolen

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A personal computer and a memory card that contained materials used to make questions for January's standardized preliminary examinations for university applicants were stolen from a test writer, the organizer of the exams said Friday.

The National Center for University Entrance Examinations (NCUEE), an education ministry-affiliated body, said it printed a new question brochure for the subject related to thestolen information to replace the old version.

It is the first time since the standardized test, often referred to as the National Center Test, began in 1990 that the whole brochure will be replaced so close to the test.

Taking documents related to the exam questions out of the NCUEE's building in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, is strictly prohibited, and no exception is made for test writers. The management system of the body likely will be heavily criticized over thetheft.

About 540,000 students are expected to sit the exam on Jan. 19 and 20.

More than 400 teachers of national, public and private universities have spent two years formulating the questions in 28 subjects in six fields. The questions for the coming examinations were drafted in August 2006, with considerable time since spent on making corrections, printing brochures and checking them. Questions and materials are required to be kept in a vault.

At the press conference, NCUEE Chairman Takashi Yoshimoto said he would return 10 percent of his salary for three months. He said, "I'm sorry for creating a huge distraction to students preparing for the exams." He said the test writer would be fired.

However, Yoshimoto said he would not announce the name of the subject for which the brochures were replaced because it would invite confusion among the students who will take the exams.

According to the NCUEE, the test writer's personal computer and a memory card were stolen from him on his way home in November. The materials they contained were not the questions themselves, but information used in the process of making the questions. However, the NCUEE decided to replace the brochure because, as a spokesman said, "There is a possibility of questions being guessed from the materials."

Education, Science and Technology Minister Kisaburo Tokai reprimanded Yoshimoto severely over the incident.

The exam contains questions in six fields: civics, geography and history, Japanese, foreign languages, science and math.

(Dec. 15, 2007)