EDUCATION Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Thursday told the Parliament that there was no allegation of question paper leak of any public examination in the last five years.Replying to a starred question from Md Abdullah, lawmaker of Laxmipur-4, Nahid however said ‘allegation of question paper leak in the SSC and HSC examinations under the Dhaka Education Board came up this year’, as per a report in a local daily.As the allegation of question paper leak in the HSC exam under the Dhaka Board was initially found to be true, the examination of English second paper was postponed and subsequently taken on a new question paper. And the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka formed a probe committee to investigate the question paper leak, while the Education Ministry also formed a high-powered committee to probe it. Nahid informed the Parliament.He also said three people are now in jail in two cases filed in Faridpur in connection with question leak. Nahid said necessary steps will be taken after getting reports from the two investigation committees.Nahid’s comments come at a time when allegations of leak of question papers of public examinations have become a regular phenomenon, with the government apparently failing to take protective measures to stop the menace. Questions of different examinations are being reportedly circulated through social media sites and SMS on mobile phones.The question papers in the recently held Secondary School Certificate examinations were also allegedly leaked, though the government has so far rejected the claim without taking up further investigation.It is unfortunate that the Hon’ble Minister has stated that no question papers have been leaked before the Parliament when unfortunately the reverse has been shown to be true. Such a statement, if indeed made by him, smacks of sheer equivocation and irony. Instead of ensuring that checks and balances exist to make sure that the steps from the creation of papers to their production and eventual distribution to examination centres are meticulously and rigorously guarded to ensure that no leakage exists no public servant should indeed make statements that the reverse is indeed the case.Stringent steps can and should be taken to ensure that such leakages don’t occur – it is not rocket science. Such leakages hurt the most meritorious and rigorous students as they feel the most demoralized as they believe that studying hard has no intrinsic value while the students who are indulging in cheating can get away with it. So the most important thing to preserve is the expectation that an honest days work will be rewarded. If students believe that trickery can get them anywhere then we will be building a nation of cheats. This must be kept in mind by our public servants — they are most instrumental in keeping the nation’s set of values and should not do anything to jeopardize it.
