No doubt about leak

It is beyond any doubt that question papers of the recently held primary terminal examinations were leaked, says an intelligence agency report, proving wrong the government's claim that news reports on the leaks were "baseless" .

The prime minister's office sent the report to the home ministry on January 11. The PMO also asked the ministry about what punitive measures would be taken against the people involved in the leak.

The report says dozens of coaching centres in Tangail district and 11 upazila sadars had supplied hand-written copies of question papers to their students before the examinations were held.

The hand-written questions match the ones uploaded on Facebook the night before each exam, it says.

"Since the copies obtained from different parts of Tangail district have exact similarity with the original question papers, it can surely be said that question papers of the primary terminal examinations were leaked," it reads.

The report mentions that besides Tangail, question papers were also leaked in Bogra, Narsingdi, Faridpur, Narail and other districts as well.

The terminal examinations began on November 23 last year with around 28 lakh class-V students sitting the tests.

Different media outlets reported the incident, mentioning links to those Facebook pages that contained questions matching those in the original question papers.

However, the primary and mass education ministry on November 26 lambasted media reports, terming the allegations "rumours" and "baseless". The ministry even urged media not to publish such "untrue" and "baseless" reports.

"Despite the leak of questions in some places and on websites, claiming the matter as baseless is frustrating," the intelligence report points out.

Pass rates in public examinations have been on the rise but if there are any flaws in the examination process, the entire process of merit assessment becomes questionable, it claims.

"The matter which is most worrying is that questions leak has become so normal that even guardians are running after the leaked questions, which is indeed undesirable," it says.

The report also points to places where incidents of leakage are highly likely.

Question papers are preserved at the state treasury of BG press and offices of education boards in districts and upazilas. "The possibility of leak from these places is highly likely, but the top officials of these institutions remain out of touch after incidents of leak," it says.

Referring to the Public Examinations (Offences) Act-1980 and (Amendment) Act- 1992, the report says incidents of question leak have happened in at least 63 examinations, but no instance of exemplary punishment has been visible yet.

The report says nothing has happened even after two separate probe committees were formed by the education ministry and Dhaka Education Board following the question leak of English Second Paper in last year's Higher Secondary Certificate examinations.

The report claims the officials concerned often try to cover up the truth and conduct examinations on the leaked questions, which is unwarranted.

The report suggests the government prioritize catching the gang to prevent any incident of leak in the upcoming SSC examinations as well as shoring up intelligence watch on coaching centres.

Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman could not be reached for his comments despite repeated attempts.