Alaul Alam :
Whenever any public examination or any other examinations such as medical college and university admission tests, or government banks’ recruitment exams and so on held, it is almost common to hear that the question paper has been leaked. It seems the question paper leakage has been an established culture exposing a dire consequence for the nation despite efforts to tackle the menace by the government over some years.
In the last some years there were huge allegations that all public exams along with admission tests at different levels of education especially, university and medical college admission exams underwent vulnerabilities due to the increasing culture of question paper leaking.
There were some syndicates who were connected with this crime. According to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police, in 2020 at least 4,000 students were admitted to several medical and dental colleges through answering the question papers leaked by a gang from 2013 to 2018. Mostly, the admission frauds are none but a gang of students studying at different public universities. Over the years some public universities have expelled a number of students for giving proxy.
Obviously, the year 2020 was unprecedented due to the outbreak of corona pandemic across the globe. Countries are trying to make up economic loss and we know that after some years this loss may be regained but it is tough to measure the loss in education that may be irreparable in many cases due to the lockdown of education for long. However, experts opine that there are many causes of question paper leakage in the country. Most people think education as a commodity and materialistic view is given priority that encourages them to adopt unfair ways to be successful in life.
Different couching and tutoring centers get involved in question paper leakage in a bid to attract more students at their organizations. Parents cannot deny their responsibilities in this concern as we see that many parents are very enthusiastic to collect the leaked question for children to attain desired level for their wards by fair or foul. This type of malpractice is really unexpected.
Corruption may be the main reason as many government officials involved in composing, editing, printing and packaging have been found responsible to leak question paper, according to many investigations. On top of that, there are some corrupted teachers who are involved in the syndicate to gain personal interest. Again, it is generally acknowledged that the abuse in social media contributes to accelerating the menace over the nation.
By doing this unethical practice a few students may be benefitted but this malpractice has a dire consequence upon the majority of students as well as the country’s education above all. The culture of question paper leakage is enough to pose a total threat to the nation because a nation has no furute when its education system is ruined.
However, to combat question paper leakage, it is true that the responsible authorities hardly have any scopes to escape the most shocking incident which is crippling our education as well as our youths. Another relevant thing is that parents and teachers have to motivate themselves that they will never do any compromise in regard to ensuring quality education for children.
It is imperative to review the question pattern of university admission tests along with other competitive tests to avoid any irregularities. It must be watchful that no fraudsters go without getting exemplary punishment. More importantly, it is a must to create a mass awareness against any misconducts in case of question paper leakage.
(Alaul Alam teaches at Prime University. Email: [email protected])
