Uniform question papers for SSC

This year's SSC and its equivalent exams under all the education boards will be held with uniform question papers.

Besides, all types of coaching centres across the country will remain closed from today, a week before the Secondary School Certificate and its equivalent exams scheduled for February 1, until the end of the exams.

The decisions were made in a meeting of national monitoring committee on law and order of the education ministry ahead of the SSC exams at the secretariat. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid chaired it.

Earlier this month, the ministry ordered that the coaching centres be closed three days before beginning the SSC exams. The ministry came up with the decision to check question paper leak.

Yesterday's meeting decided that any test would be cancelled if the authorities found evidence of question paper leak true. The ministry is discussing with the authorities concerned about shutting down of Facebook for a limited time in Bangladesh during the exams.

"We are very desperate this time and have taken measures to prevent question leak," the minister said while disclosing the measures taken for tackling question leak.

He said all the departments concerned were sincerely working to root out all possible sources of question paper leak.

There has been a widespread allegation of leaking of question papers of all public exams like JSC, SSC and HSC, medical college and university admission tests, and state-owned banks' recruitment exams over the last couple of years. In most cases, questions were leaked allegedly through Facebook.

The education ministry initially brushed aside those allegations. It then took some measures to stop the leak, but the leaks continued.

Asked whether there would be a risk of question leak due to the unified question papers, Secondary and Higher Education Division Secretary Sohorab Hossain said they made the decision as there were criticisms that the standards of question papers varied from board to board.

Examinees of all education boards would take part in the exams under the same question papers, he added.

But if the evidence of question paper leak is found to be true during and even after a test, it will be cancelled, said Sohorab.

About the closure of coaching centres, Nahid said the coaching centres were the "hubs" of question leak.

"They [the coaching centres] get more students if they can manage to get the questions leaked. The coaching centres will remain shut down from Friday until the exams end," he said, asking representatives of law enforcement agencies to take proper measures in this regard.

Nahid said only the centre secretary could keep "normal cell phones", not smart phones with them during the exams.

"No one can keep cell phones in the examination hall. Even we will also keep the cell phones outside if we go to visit centres," he said.

Asked about shutting down of Facebook, Nahid said, "We are discussing with Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission about closing of Facebook for a short period during the SSC exams. A decision would come in a day or two." 

Secretary Sohorab said the ministry would make the decision public within a day or two after it consulted with the authorities concerned regarding blocking of the social networking site.

Sheikh Nazmul Alam, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, who was present at yesterday's meeting, said executive magistrates and centre secretaries must be present when the question papers would be collected from treasury offices.