Academicians have blamed the education ministry for failing to prevent the leak of question papers in public examinations, likening the rot to “cancer” in the country’s education system. The criticism came in the backdrop of the recent paper leaks in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations. At least seven SSC papers have been held so far, but all the questions were leaked before the respective exams.

Meanwhile, in an effort to prevent question paper leak, three mobile operators yesterday suspended their internet services for half an hour as per the directives of the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Corporation (BTRC) following a request by the education ministry.

“We instructed the mobile operators to suspend their internet services for an hour before the start of exams at 10am. The measure was taken to prevent a leak,” a BTRC official said yesterday.

However, it took more than half an hour to stop the services on technical grounds. But BTRC said it has not yet decided whether to take the same step for the following examinations as well.

Meanwhile, even before the mobile operators suspended internet services, the question paper of yesterday’s SSC Information and Communication Technology (ICT) examination and answers were found on a number of social media sites including facebook pages.

Photos were seen in various social media sites of the MCQ part of the question paper around 9:00am. A comparison later found the original question paper and the leaked one to be a match.

Referring to the unabated question paper leak, Prof. Siddiqur Rahman, a former teacher at Dhaka University’s Institute of Education and Research, told The Independent, “The persons who are entrusted to prevent the leak of question papers have totally failed in their duty. They cannot evade responsibility. Such a failure is tarnishing the government’s image as well.”

Prof. Rahman complained that guardians and examinees were running after question papers before examinations in the hope of scoring good marks. “But these marks would not help them in future. They would not acquire the necessary knowledge because they adopted wrong means,” he added.

He said question paper leaks were becoming an annual trend, which would be detrimental to the country’s human resources. “Education is the tool for making resourceful persons. But if the leak of question papers continues, how would the country gain resourceful manpower?” he added.

Prof. Abu Jafar Md Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan of Dhaka University’s television, film and photography department said: “The leak of question papers is a malady like cancer. It's eating away at the education system. General students are not studying, but rather running after question papers.”

Regarding the recent arrest of fourteen people by police over the alleged question paper leak, the academicians said such arrests would serve no purpose as the masterminds were still free.

“The persons who are being held have no connection with framing or leaking the question papers. They are the secondary sources. The main culprits should be caught immediately and given exemplary punishment,” Prof. Bhuiyan said.

He suggested that if need be, the whole examination system should be restructured to prevent leaks and make it more efficient.

In another development, an 11-member committee constituted by the education ministry to assess the information on question paper leak held its first meeting yesterday, five days after its formation.

Education ministry sources said they received an e-mail from Md Alamgir, the committee chief and secretary of the ministry’s Technical and Madrasa Division, for an emergency meeting. The meeting was held at the conference room of the education ministry.

“We have distributed the work to the committee members.  We will hold another meeting next Sunday. We would then report our findings and give recommendations to the education ministry,” Alamgir said.

Asked whether the SSC examinations would be cancelled, Alamgir said: “The ministry would decide on this.”