SSC Exams: Wrong test papers given at 4 centres
Wrong question papers were distributed among students during yesterday’s Bangla first part SSC exams at four centres in Barishal, Nilphamari, Jashore, and Feni.
The Secondary School Certificate and equivalent exams began on the day.
In Barishal, 17 students got wrong sets of MCQ question papers, based on the old syllabus, in the city’s Halima Khatun Girls’ High School centre.
At the centre, more than half of the candidates were expected to appear for the test with question papers from the current syllabus. However, 17 had to answer questions based on the old syllabus, said Shah Alam, headmaster of Jagadish Saraswat Girls’ High School in the city.
The Barishal education board authorities were notified of the matter, but it was too late by then. The candidates were affected as they could not answer all the questions, he added.
After visiting the centre, board Chairman Mohammad Yunus said the matter would be considered so that the 17 examinees were not affected.
The chairman then formed a three-member inquiry committee.
Barishal education board decided to issue a show cause notice to those who were tasked with distributing question papers at the centre, board sources said.
A similar incident took place at Rabeya Balika Bidyaniketan centre in Nilphamari town where 98 candidates from two schools were provided with written question papers on the old syllabus (2018).
After answering the questions for around an hour, the candidates brought the matter to the invigilators’ notice. Later, Mahafizur Rahman, exam centre secretary and headmaster of Rabeya Balika Bidyaniketan, communicated the matter to the authorities concerned.
On information, Azharul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (general), visited the centre and spoke to Tofazzur Hossain, Dinajpur education board examination controller, in this regard.
The controller then directed the invigilators to provide the candidates with the right question papers and give them an extra hour to complete their answer.
Talking to The Daily Star, Mahafizur said 620 students appeared for yesterday’s exam at the centre. Of them, 619 were regular candidates and one was an irregular candidate.
“As per the rules, we got seven bundles of question papers for the 619 regular candidates and one bundle for the causal candidate. Each bundle has 100 question papers,” he said.
“Mistakenly, the question papers, based on the old syllabus, from that one bundle were distributed among the regular candidates,” he added.
In Jashore’s Chowgachha, five teachers of an examination centre committee, including the centre secretary, were relieved of their duties over providing students with wrong sets of MCQ question papers, said the upazila nirbahi officer, also the exam centre in-charge.
The incident happened at Chowgachha Government Shahadat Pilot Secondary School centre where 19 regular candidates were given question papers based on the old syllabus and two irregular candidates with those of based on the current syllabus.
The teachers relieved of their duties are Azizur Rahman, exam centre secretary and headmaster of the school, and Abdul Jalil, Salma Khatun, Lucky Akter, and Rabiul Islam.
Talking to this newspaper, Azizur said the mistake was unintentional.
“We informed Jashore education board examination controller and Chowgachha UNO and provided the candidates with right question papers for the written test,” he added.
“The controller assured us that it will not affect the examinees’ results,” he added.
Sixty-six students were given wrong sets of MCQ question papers at Fazilpur WB Kadri High School in Feni Sadar upazila.
Our Barishal, Nilphamari, Jhenidah, and Feni correspondents contributed to this report.
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