SSC exams: Tests will be cancelled if questions leak, says Minister Nahid

Any evidence of question leaks will lead to the cancellation of SSC tests, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said on the first day of the exams.

All kinds of measures have been taken to stop the menace, he said after visiting the Govt Laboratory School, an exam centre, in Dhaka.

More than two million students are taking this year’s Secondary School Certificate or SSC and equivalent exams, which started on Thursday.

“If it’s found that the questions have leaked, we will cancel the tests. There’s no doubt about that,” Nahid told the media.

“Rumours are swirling on Facebook over question leaks. Think about the 2.5 million students who will have to retake the tests. But no tests on leaked questions.”

Nahid officially launched the exams by opening a sealed envelope containing the question papers after speaking with several students and parents at the centre.

In its frantic bid to plug question leaks, authorities have made it mandatory for students to enter the exam centres half an hour before the tests begin.

Coaching centres have remained closed for a week and will not be allowed to operate until Feb 24, when the theoretical tests end.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid

Mobile phones or any other electronic devices have been banned from the centres. Only the centre secretary will be allowed to use a phone with no camera.

The sealed envelopes containing the questions have to be opened 30 minutes before the test.

The government has left no stones unturned this year, said Nahid. “We have done everything humanly possible to stop question leaks.”

Referring to a Facebook post with ‘question paper’, a reporter told the minister that there was a rumour that it has been leaked.

Later, Nahid and other officials compared it with the question and confirmed that it was not the case.

“We found it’s not the question. Please verify rumours,” he said urging everyone’s cooperation.

Replying to a query over Khaleda’s graft case verdict hampering the tests, Nahid said: “We hope no one will do anything to jeopardise the students’ future. Then again, we had managed to hold exams in such situations, but it was tough on us as well as on the students.”

Tensions are running high on the political scene as a Dhaka court is expected to deliver its verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on Feb 8.