No guarantee question paper leaks will stop if Nahid resigns: MP Shamsul Hoque

An MP has sprung to the defence of the beleaguered Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid in parliament, saying his resignation would offer no tangible solution to rampant question paper leaks.

Shamsul Hoque Chowdhury, who represents a Chittagong constituency, took the floor on Tuesday to deliberate on the president’s speech and that was when he remarked 'the minister could not stop the leaks alone'.

Nahid has been facing intense criticism over question paper leaks in public examinations, and many people are demanding that he resign accepting the failure.

The ruling party MP proposed investigating the people working under Nahid, terming him too ‘naive’ to stop the menace.

“What can he (Nahid) do alone? We can’t say whether question paper leak will stop if we replace him with someone else,” Shamsul said.

His comments came a day after opposition Jatiya Party leader Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu MP demanded the education minister be sacked for the failure to stop the leaks.

After question papers of almost all the public examinations were leaked last year, the education ministry took a raft of measures to stop the leaks, which include mandatory entrance of the candidates to the centres half an hour before the SSC exams start this year.

The leaked question papers, however, spread on the social media about an hour before the exams of Bangla 1 and 2 papers and English Paper 1. Those leaked question papers matched the original ones.

After an emergency meeting at the Secretariat on Sunday, Nahid offered Tk 500,000 cash reward for information leading to the arrest of a leaker, but no arrest was made until Tuesday night.

Nahid, a member of the ruling Awami League’s Presidium, has blamed teachers, who he said ‘wanted to put the government in an embarrassing situation’, for the leaks. 

Shamsul said, “Many are saying many things about the education minister. But what can he do alone? Investigate the people working under him.”

“He is a simple person. What can he do if you repeatedly ask him to resign? Does anyone know what will the person, who would take over if Nahid resigned, do? No one can say this,” the MP added.