While some students made innovative complex headgear using junk they found lying around, others donned hats, helmets or Halloween masks.
Pictures of students wearing “anti-cheating” hats in the Phillippines have gone viral on social media. Mary Joy Mandane-Ortiz, a professor of mechanical engineering at Bicol University College of Engineering, shared a string of photos on Facebook, which showed the youngsters wearing their elaborate creations while giving their mid-term exams.
The students of the engineering college in Legazpi City were asked to wear headgear to prevent them from peeking at others’ papers. In response, the students created homemade contraptions out of cardboard, egg boxes and other recycled materials.
Take a look at some of the pictures below:
The images quickly took the internet by storm and even made the news in the Phillippines – where several other colleges also followed the suit in a bid to crack down on cheating.
Speaking to BBC, Ms Mandane-Ortiz said that she had been looking for a “fun way” to ensure “integrity and honesty” in her class. She claimed that her idea had been “really effective”.
Further, the professor said that her request had been for students to make a “simple” design out of paper. But Ms Mandane-Ortiz said while some of her students made innovative complex headgear using junk they found lying around, others donned hats, helmets or Halloween masks.
Ms Mandane-Ortiz revealed that she was inspired by a technique used in Thailand some years ago. She said that in 2013, an image that went viral on social media showed university students taking test papers while wearing “ear flaps” – sheets of paper stuck to either side of their head to obscure their vision.
The professor told the media outlet that her engineers-in-training performed better this year, having been motivated by the strict examination conditions to study extra hard. Many of them even finished their tests early and – perhaps most importantly – none of them was caught cheating, she added.
