TIB report on question paper leaks
Govt officials blamed
The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has alleged that leak of public exam question papers would not be possible without the involvement of a section of government officials.
It has also pointed out 19 probable risky steps for such leaks out of 40 during the formulation, printing, and distribution of question papers.
It has found cases of monetary dealings between Tk 20 and Tk 20,000 for attaining and distributing the papers.
This was revealed during the launch of its research paper Question Paper Leakage in Public Examination: Process, Reason and Way Out at its office in the capital. The research was conducted from January to July 2015. The paper was unveiled by TIB deputy programme managers Nihar Ranjan Roy and Rumana Sharmin.
The research paper further reveals that from January 20122015, at least 63 question papers of different public examinations were leaked. The frequency of these leaks was alarmingly high in the Junior School Certificate (JSC) exams and Primary Education Completion Examination (PECE) in 2013 and 2014.
The report states that such leaks would not be possible without the involvement of officials of the National Academy for Primary Education (NAPE), the Directorate of Primary Education, the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (DSHE), the BG Press, district and upazila administrations, examination centres, and other educational institutions.
It also mentions that people involved with political parties, coaching centres, guidebook sellers, photocopy shops, students, guardians, and social media spread the leaked question papers.
The corruption watchdog attributed such question paper leaks to laxity in implementing laws, denial of question paper leaks at the policymaking level, reluctance to disclose probe committee reports, culture of impunity against the responsible persons, employment of same teachers every year for formulating questions, lack of supervision regarding the use of information technology, and unhealthy competition among educational institutions to achieve better ranking.
The TIB report says question paper leaks ensure financial gains for different groups through realisation of money from students. It says such leaks lure students to join coaching centres.
The findings reveal that the recent question paper leaks have considerably decreased the quality of education and the nation will feel the negative impact in the foreseeable future.
The TIB gave seven-point recommendations, including amending the provision of the Public Examinations (Offences) (Amendment) Act, 1992, to restore the previous punishment of 10 years in prison, instead of the current four years; providing incentives
and creating an education-friendly atmosphere in educational institutions to stop coaching centres from luring students; implementing laws to ban guide books; increasing supervision and monitoring on the use of information technology; reducing the number of steps to create question papers; and disclosing probe committee reports.
TIB executive director, Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, Bangladesh has been glorified in the international arena for achieving the indicators of millennium development goals, but we are still concerned about the quality of education. The issue of question paper leaks proves that the government is not giving importance to quality education.
