High-level govt meet identifies six reasons behind test paper leaks

The government has identified six reasons behind leaks of question papers of public examinations in a high-level meeting.

Home Minister Asaduzaaman Khan Kamal and Telecoms and IT Minister Mustafa Jabbar attended the meeting called by Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Six secretaries joined the meeting held from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.

They are Secondary and Higher Education Secretary Sohorab Hossain, Public Administration Senior Secretary Mozammel Haque Khan, Public Security Secretary Mostafa Kamal Uddin, Post and Telecommunications Secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder, ICT Secretary Subir Kishore Choudhury, and Technical and Madrasa Education Secretary Md Alamgir.

Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood and top officials of related ministries and law-enforcing agencies were also present.

The meeting came a day after a government committee submitted its report on question paper leaks following widespread criticism over the leaks and the spread of the leaked papers on the social media.

The committee, headed by Secretary Alamgir, found the allegation of leaks true.

According to the minutes of Tuesday’s meeting on ways to hold public exams properly, the ministers and officials identified six reasons behind the menace.

These are:

>> The question papers are exposed to around 250 employees of the Bangladesh Government or BG Press during editing, printing and packaging, and it is possible for a group of three to four of them to memorise and leak the question papers.

>> There are allegations that exam officials at many centres don’t follow the rules properly to distribute question papers after getting those from the treasuries through executive magistrates or other officials in charge of distributing those.

>> Additional centres have been approved, but the government does not have adequate officials to manage those. Besides this, many of these centres are situated far from the main centres, and so the secretaries at these main centres have to open the sealed packages of question papers long before the exams start.

>> It has become difficult to control the use of smartphones by the test-takers and teachers and officials in charge of the exam centres. As a result, the question papers spread on the social media because of a few teachers and officials.

>> There are scopes of expanding the law enforcers’ activities to identify the leakers, using the social media, and take action against them. Bolstering the law enforcers' activities 15 days before the start of exams can be effective. It appears that the detective agencies cannot monitor the situation due to lack of manpower and infrastructural and technological problems. As the miscreants are evading immediate arrest and punishment, the others are encouraged to do the crime.   

>> BTRC does not have anything to control the social media effectively, which has led to the failure to identify those who upload the question papers and block their accounts.

The meeting heard the cooperation of different ministries departments and agencies is essential to hold public tests properly because many of these ministries, departments and agencies, like the post and railways divisions, are involved in taking the question papers to the centres.

Home Minister Kamal left the conference room of the education ministry sometime after the start of the meeting but did not speak to the media.

IT Minister Jabbar said they would provide other departments with the required help to stop leaks.

About the meeting, he said the education ministry would brief the media since it had called the meeting.

Education Minister Nahid did not speak to reporters either.

Later, Secondary and Higher Education Secretary Sohorab told reporters: “This was a high-level meeting today. Ministers, secretaries and top officials of the ministries related to the exams were present.”

The main objective of the meeting was to conclude the ongoing SSC exams properly.

“You’ve seen the situation is under control to some extent for two days. We hope we will be able to maintain this in the next exams,” the secretary said.

He said the restrictions imposed by the government to stop leaks would continue as there was no scope to alter the exam system during the ongoing SSC tests now. 

“Anyone seen with a mobile phone near the exam centres will face legal action."

He also said if leaked questions are found on someone’s mobile phone, they will face charges under Section 57 of the ICT Act.

Sohorab said they have a plan to make question papers on the exam day using a question bank in the future to stop the leaks.

He said everyone agreed on this plan in the meeting and hoped to implement it in next year’s SSC exams.

“We are also considering whether we can send the question papers directly to the exam centres using devices. We need a mechanism where questions won’t be printed and distributed, and there will be no scope for leaks,” he said.

According to the secretary, the law enforcers have arrested 152 people on charges of question paper leaks and will continue their drives.

He also said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina favours doing away with multiple-choice questions or MCQs.

He said they would decide about the efforts to stop leaks after getting recommendations of the committee.