Dhaka board SSC math test to be cancelled if question paper leak evidence found

The SSC math test of Dhaka board will be cancelled if the authorities find evidence of question paper leak in investigations, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has said.

bdnews24.com revealed the leak in its own investigation on Sunday, raising eyebrows across Bangladesh.

On Monday evening, Nahid told bdnews24.com: "We will surely think about cancelling the math test if it is found that the question paper was leaked and the candidates were harmed or some of them gained from it."

The minister said the authorities were investigating the matter. "We already have a committee. We are investigating the matter in various ways."

He claimed that the questions leaked over seven hours before the exam did not match with those used in the test.

The minister, however, claimed the question paper was taken out of the centres 40 minutes before the exam.

bdnews24.com Staff Correspondent Sazia Afrin obtained several sets of the question paper through WhatsApp messaging app from Saturday night to Sunday morning.

The questions for the creative section received at 2:40am on Sunday and the Multiple Choice Question section received at 9:30am matched exactly with those used in the exam which started at 10am.

Nahid has pointed his finger at the teachers, saying his ministry did not have the question paper when it was leaked '30 to 40 minutes before the examination'.

"The question papers have to reach the exam centres two hours before the tests so that the persons at the centres can distribute those. The question papers are sent even earlier to remote places," he said.

"The teachers have the question papers if those are leaked 40 minutes before the exams. The teachers are our big assets. Where will we go if some of the teachers get involved in it (question paper leak)?" he wondered.

When asked about the creative questions bdnews24.com received at 2:40am, Nahid said, "We will check whether any question paper was leaked before that (40 minutes before the exam)."

The minister thinks the guardians of the candidates cannot avoid responsibility.

"What is the ethics of the guardians who are willing to buy their children leaked question papers? They are destroying the teachers' dignity along with their children's education," he said.

The minister also said leaking question papers is not a new practice in Bangladesh. People know a lot about it now because of the explosion of the media.

"There were not so many media, Facebook, online newspapers. People had values...," he said.

Officials said the question papers printed in the Bangladesh Government Press are sealed and sent to deputy commissioners' offices and kept in the treasuries for 15 to 20 days before the public examinations.

The question papers are forwarded from the local treasuries to the police stations at the Upazilas three days before the examinations and those finally reach the exam centres on the morning of the exam days.

The authorities at the exam centres open the sealed files half an hour before the tests start.

Tapan Kumar Sarkar, the exam controller at the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka, told bdnews24.com on Sunday that the authorities suspect someone in the treasuries is involved in the leak.

The education minister on Monday claimed a syndicate at the BG Press has made 'tens of millions of taka' by leaking question papers.

"We tried to intervene...there are law-enforcement committees...we together (monitored) the BG Press. Now question paper is not leaked from there," he said.

Nahid sees the gaps in the lengthy process of distributing the question papers across Bangladesh.

"There is risk in sending the question papers. Those are kept for two months..."

The minister spoke of the government's 'firm' stance against leak.

"We are also anxious, frustrated. We are taking many steps to find the leakers," he added.

He said if the government finds any leak before the exam, it will be postponed.

"In case of finding the leak after the exam, we will cancel it," Nahid added.