HSC question paper leaks: The silence is appalling
After the final written exams, a group of journalists found out that some BUET students were solving the leaked questions and handing out the solutions en masse
Fahim Falsoy
As a student who partook in the HSC exam and experienced the situation firsthand, I find the lack of coverage on question leaks disheartening and disappointing. In the last month, I only saw only one article mentioning the capture of some teachers involved in question paper leak and almost nothing else. Does this mean that the situation is under control and free from corruption? Unfortunately, no news is hardly if ever, good news.
The following is strictly based on my personal experience and yes, I will admit that the situation might be different in other exam centres. However, the situation was so terrible that I feel the need to speak up because no one else will. The first five exams went relatively normally. I did not hear about any question leaks until the sixth exam which was the biology 1st paper. When I arrived at the exam center I found it barren except for the handful of students who were there before me. Apparently the MCQ questions were leaked an hour before the actual exam began. The rest of the students were busy solving the leaked test papers.
I did not believe him at first. The other students entered the exam hall at 9:45 a.m., merely 15 minutes before the exam. They did admit that they saw the leaked questions. However, this time the questions were virtually identical to the real exam papers. And this happened again and again for each subsequent exam. In fact, the question papers for the written exams started getting leaked after the physics exam.
Of course, it is absolutely normal to think that the leaked question papers will not have much of an effect if the students get only 45 minutes to solve them. After all, the whole exam is almost 3 hours long. Speaking for myself, the MCQ question can be solved under 15-20 minutes by one person. If a group of five students sit down to solve the questions together, a common scene in the exam centre where my exams took place, it only takes 5-7 minutes. For the written exams, one only needs to look at the questions that are hard. Moreover, the question paper for the physics exam and all subsequent exams were leaked with solutions. This cuts down the time even farther. After the final written exams, a group of journalists found out that a group of BUET students were solving the leaked questions and handing out the solutions en masse. However, it is too little, too late.
But the education ministrys continued silence on the matter is even more troubling. During the whole exam period, the minister did not say anything about question leaks even though he must have known about it. My mother called one of her colleagues at the education ministry and apparently the HSC question paper leaks were an open secret there. S/he said that their hands were tied and they could not stop the leaks despite their best efforts. Still, the education minister did not speak up on the matter. In fact, when the SSC results were announced, he proudly said that there werent any question paper leaks during the exams. Needless to say, I have no faith in him now.
This also points out a fatal flaw in how our education ministry thinks. They do not care about the students at all. To them, we are merely cogs in the machine. They are so focused on results and pass rates that they completely forget about the bigger picture. They never inform the students before taking any major decision that will change the rest of the students academic lives. There is zero communication between students and the ministry regarding any decision. They leave us in the dark until its too late. When the education ministry decided to change the method for checking exam scripts, they didnt inform the students beforehand. A lot of confusion would have been avoided if they did. This year, a record amount of students are applying for exam script rechecks.
Still, their silence regarding question paper leaks is absolutely inexcusable. It is an insult to the honest students who (like yours truly) decided against reading the leaked exam questions despite every reason to do so. Since the obtained marks are publicly visible there is immense social pressure to increase the amount of marks. Furthermore, some students cannot even take admission test for BUET.
Even so, I do understand that the education ministry decided to change the rules to help the students. Despite their best intentions, making exam marks public has caused more harm than good. Yes, it did bring some much needed transparency to the exam script evaluation process. However, it is wrong to use that as a metric to judge students and outright bar them from even taking the admission test. I am well aware that BUET manually checks each exam script. Obviously, limiting the number of students might lower the workload of those who check the exam scripts. However, in the era of question leaks, do these numbers even matter? The ones who viewed the leaked questions will easily get more than enough marks to partake in the exam. However, what of the students who didnt cheat and miss the margin by a bit? Is it fair to them? How would they feel if they are told that they cannot partake in the exam because they were honest?
Let me clear some misconceptions here. This is not a matter of talent or ability. In the written exams, your capability as student takes second place. If, by any chance, your handwriting is bad, you will get lower marks in the exam. Obviously, a persons handwriting is not something you can use to judge his or her ability. If it was, I would have been a terrible student. However, it does sting a lot when my English teacher says that our exam scripts will be judged based on handwriting more than anything else.
Of course, handwriting isnt the only factor. Some teachers do not like to give high marks unless an answer matches all their requirements, others do. Moreover, when I tell my friends who are living in rural areas that Im busy taking preparations for the practical exams, they are surprised. They do not have to go through that trouble at all. They are awarded full marks without doing anything whereas I have to actually work for it. Even after working so hard, whether or not I am rewarded for it depends on the whims of a teacher.
Indeed, it seems making the obtained marks public wasnt a good thing for the students at all. In this twisted world of question leaks and inflated results, it had the opposite effect. Many of my friends said that they wouldnt have looked at the leaked exam scripts if BUET did not arbitrarily set a minimum marks requirement.
However, I do not blame my friends for what they did. All of this is the product of a flawed, results-first education system.
One thing to note is that unlike other universities, SSC and HSC results are not factored in the final marking in BUETs admission process. The students are ranked only based on how well they did on the admission test. Therefore, the decision including a minimum marks requirement is pointless to begin with.
Of course, most of this boils down to finger pointing at BUET and the education ministry. Like the education ministry, I have no real solution to all these problems. However, I am merely a student. Im not supposed to have the answers. My goal in writing this article was to speak up about the situation because no one else will. The mere fact that a student like me is writing this instead of the education minister or at least someone like Mr. Jafar Iqbal implies that something is seriously wrong here. We need to address the elephant in the room. We cannot remain silent and hide the truth. It took the education ministry years before admitting that questions were leaked in the previous years. I can only hope that it doesnt take them decades before they open up and finally start taking any meaningful action.
The writer is a concerned student.
