A view-exchange meeting of a desperate kind was held between the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Education Ministry officials at the national secretariat last Sunday. The desperation comes from helplessness being felt by the authorities to cope with the surge in question paper leaks. So much so that even the annual exams of class II were not spared; a carbon copy of mathematics question paper having been out prior to the exam day, the primary education office at Barguna had to postpone the examination at 140 schools. Indeed, so festering has the toxic business of question paper leakage become that integrity and sanctity of examinations are sliding thick and fast through the slippery slope into an abyss.
If in the past it was in drips, now it comes in waves. And, as they say, 'a desperate situation calls for desperate measures'. No ad hoc steps but those that square up with the entrenched nature of the problem.
The acting chairman of the Anti-corruption Commission Dr. Nasiruddin last Sunday presented the investigative report of the 'education-related institutional team' to education minister Nurul Islam Nahid. Views were exchanged across the board on the content of the report between anti-corruption functionaries and just about anybody who is somebody in the education ministry. The moot points wide-ranging as they were and provided by the 39 recommendations of the special team constituted to address corruption and malpractice in the education sector. These include suggestions to combat question paper leaks, prohibiting note-guide books, coaching business, refurbishing education infrastructure, inclusion of schools in MPO, stoppage of corruption in postings and transfers etc.
On the focal-point the issue of question-paper exposes, however, the anti-graft body put in the dock education boards, Bangladesh Government Press (BGP),Treasury, dishonest officials at the exam centres, coaching centres, corrupt teachers and various criminal circuits.
To such observations the education minister responded by informing that a raft of measures are under consideration and that methodologies are being examined to outsmart the wily, greedy, money-spinning question marketers. As for the suggestion for admitting students to the exam hall half an hour before the test, the education minister wondered as to what difference it could make when teachers (the sacred trust, as it were) themselves leak questions. Nahid waxed insightful with further observations: Coaching centres entice teachers by selling the message that better results ensured by disclosing questions would mean profits for all in the game. It is no surprise that ' the better the teacher the worse performing is he in the class room; for, he deliberately withholds the best stuff including in particular revealing set questions to the privately coached!' If the allegations are true, something is deeply wrong with the social values turned upside down where money chase has replaced the quiet dignity and respect that teachers personified in society.
The anti-corruption commission report has made some specific problem-solving suggestions such as select properly qualified meritorious, honest and ethically sound teachers for the question setting committee; securing undertaking from those to be involved with question paper formulation and distribution making it clear that none of their progeny or relatives would be appearing at the test; the moderators would have to be kept under monitoring of people in charge; question papers contained in a box with a special lock will be sent to the Treasury under the supervision of the magistrate and the education officier; and the double-lock will be opened in presence of the deputy commissioner with questions going to the exam centres.
All these recommendations are reflective of a comprehensive approach to mitigating what may turn out to be an educational disaster if not screeched to a halt. It warrants a fail-safe coordination of all concerned, a challenge we must have to prove equal to if we are to make a real dent in the situation.
But so long as we catch the culprits, expose them to society and give them exemplary punishment striking fear in others, arresting the virus may be elusive.
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