Overhauling medical college entry test

With the help of leaked question papers, hundreds of students got admitted to medical colleges through 10 admission tests held between 2001 and 2017 and they are now working as registered physicians. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police revealed this at a recent media briefing after arresting a group of 12 persons allegedly involved in the leaks. It goes without saying that leaking of question papers frustrates bright students. It also degrades the quality of the future crop of medical professionals. But the consequence is graver when it comes to medical education because it means risking the lives of people by giving a medical certificate to persons.

It is happening not just in medical colleges. From primary and JSC exams to SSC and HSC exams, from university admission tests to recruitment exams - almost all exams in Bangladesh have been plagued by question paper leaks. And the last decade saw an unprecedented level of activity from question leak syndicates. In case of medical admission tests, question papers were reportedly leaked in 2001, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013. The number of question paper leak incidents, however, has dropped after the authorities concerned took some preventive measures. Still, question papers are leaked. In October 2022, Biman Bangladesh suspended its recruitment test just two hours before its commencement because the question paper had been leaked. Following the question leak in recruitment tests for five state-owned banks in November 2021, the Bangladesh Bank cancelled the exam. These reported cases expose the extent of moral degradation, not just in education but in other public sectors.

According to the Public Examination (Crime) Act, 1980 and Amendment 1992, leaking, publishing, or distributing question papers is punishable by a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 years imprisonment. But only a few culprits have been brought to justice so far for leaking question papers. With punitive measures not being implemented properly, the criminals naturally feel encouraged to do the same thing repeatedly. So, proper execution of laws must be ensured. Both the question paper leakers and their beneficiaries should be punished equally. Some parents should also be held responsible for question paper leaks. These parents push their children to succeed in exams by hook or by crook by buying them question papers. If we cannot stop this practice of question paper leak, it will encourage all students regardless of merit to resort to cheating. And it will teach them that hard labour bears no fruit. This will make students lose faith in the public education system and damage their overall confidence.

In standardised tests like the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), examinees do not even think of getting leaked question papers as it has different sets of questions. This largely eliminates their chances of passing the test through copying and adopting unfair means. Although reforming public examinations in Bangladesh is in not an easy task, we can learn a lot from such globally practised standardised tests. The current system of medical college entry test simply is not up to the mark. It is entirely based on multiple-choice questions (MCQs). Leaking MCQ question is much easier than the written ones. For example, BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) admission test question papers never get leaked. So, much more needs to be done than to simply burst criminal rackets. And it is time we thought about overhauling the system of medical colleges entry test.

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