THE fresh spate of question leaks that have so far blemished our public and private examinations have now started taking place within the sphere of terminal examinations such as the primary level – further jeopardizing the declining standards of education in the country. However, the Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid’s recent statement of absolute denial of any responsibility and helplessness in checking continual leak of question papers for different examinations is utterly disappointing. He addressed the problem by shifting the blame and responsibility completely onto teachers – saying all due measures were taken by the Ministry to prevent this malpractice and misconduct but unfortunately, the teachers could not be trusted. Also what is even more depressing is that, when question papers of Dhaka University (DU) admissions exams were leaked in last October, the DU teachers also kept denying the allegations. It seems like the culture of shifting blame has become widespread similar to the culture of moral and financial corruption. The question involuntarily, arises – whom should we blame?
We don’t find enough reasons to single out teachers for such rampant misconduct. They may be a part of the problem, but certainly not the entire problem. If some teachers are indeed to blame, appropriate measures must be taken. And who is responsible for ensuring the quality of teachers? How can the Education Ministry absolve themselves of all responsibilities?
Instead we believe the entire education system has become riddled with all forms of misconduct and irregularities. It can surely happen due to the gross lack of accountability and transparency what we are witnessing right now. Other than completely shifting the blame on any particular side, we expect the Minister to take due measures to prevent unscrupulous individuals, whether they are teachers, public officials or anyone else involved in these question paper leak rackets so that our students are not influenced by the poor moral standards that seemed to have plagued our education system.
The Education Minister needs education to run the ministry. He has proved utterly incompetent and in doing the job he is destroying education. But he will not be changed, because personal loyalty and not competence is required to hold any such important position.
We don’t find enough reasons to single out teachers for such rampant misconduct. They may be a part of the problem, but certainly not the entire problem. If some teachers are indeed to blame, appropriate measures must be taken. And who is responsible for ensuring the quality of teachers? How can the Education Ministry absolve themselves of all responsibilities?
Instead we believe the entire education system has become riddled with all forms of misconduct and irregularities. It can surely happen due to the gross lack of accountability and transparency what we are witnessing right now. Other than completely shifting the blame on any particular side, we expect the Minister to take due measures to prevent unscrupulous individuals, whether they are teachers, public officials or anyone else involved in these question paper leak rackets so that our students are not influenced by the poor moral standards that seemed to have plagued our education system.
The Education Minister needs education to run the ministry. He has proved utterly incompetent and in doing the job he is destroying education. But he will not be changed, because personal loyalty and not competence is required to hold any such important position.
