Govt forms probe body

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education yesterday formed a three-member committee to investigate the rumour of question paper leakage that spread on the first day of the primary terminal examinations.
Headed by the ministry's Joint Secretary Gias Uddin Ahmed, the committee has been asked to submit a report within 48 hours, said officials of the ministry.
The move came following reports of two newspapers that the question paper for the mathematics exam had been leaked in some areas of the capital.
Meanwhile, the Directorate of Primary Education found no trace of question paper leak in its primary investigation. It found that only suggestions for possible questions had been sold.
“Some of those suggestions just happened to be in the question paper,” said Shyamal Kanti Ghosh, director general of Directorate of Primary Education.
Over 2.11 lakh examinees out of over 29 lakh were absent countrywide yesterday, the second day of the examination taken by general and madrasa students of class-V.
According to the directorate's control room, about 94 percent of general students and 84 percent of madrasa students showed up in yesterday's examination while some 1,58,326 general students and 53,069 madrasa students were absent.
The Dhaka division had the highest number of absentees from both the groups. A total of 70,783 students were absent on the second day of the exam in the division alone, according to the directorate's data.
A student was expelled in Dhaka division yesterday reportedly for resorting to unfair means in the exam.
The examination ends on November 29.