Thousands of school pupils across Lower Saxony have had their exam season disrupted after thieves broke into a school in Harz and took the exam answer sheet from a safe.

Thieves in Lower Saxony steal Abitur answer sheet

Politics and Economics Abitur exams at secondary schools in Lower Saxony have been severely disrupted after a school was broken into, compromising the certainty that no exam takers had seen or circulated the answer sheet. The Abitur exam is the secondary school exam in Germany that pupils need to take if they would like to continue on to higher education.

Speaking to the dpa, a spokesperson for the Ministry for Culture in Lower Saxony said that the break-in meant that a pupil could theoretically have seen the answer sheet. Since all students in Lower Saxony take the same paper, Politics and Economics exams were paused statewide.

According to the ministry, thieves at the school broke into a safe containing the answer sheet for the exam. Once they had fled the scene, the answer sheet was found in the school playground. It is yet unclear whether their motive was vandalism or something more specific.

Pupils allowed to delay taking exam

Once it had been discovered that the answer sheet could have been seen or shared, the Ministry for Culture in Lower Saxony contacted schools and explained that they should collect any exam papers that had been issued or withhold exam papers yet to be handed out.

By 9am the ministry had delivered a new paper to schools, giving them the option of going ahead with the exam on April 11 or postponing it until May 8, if teachers thought that the chaos disrupted students too much.

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