Leakages blur successes in education

Different indices reveal notable progress in the education sector.  Record pass rates, checking of school dropouts and minimal corruption made the sector somewhat vibrant.
But the successes have been blurred for some disagreeable activities like frequent question paper leakages -- from recruitment tests to public examinations. For this the government came under serious criticism from cross-section of people.
Educationists and civil society members had applauded some of the government's initiatives in the education sector including implementation of Educational Policy-2010 and increase of budget. However, they expressed reservations regarding the government's failure to prevent unethical practices like continuous question paper leakage.  
The latest report published by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), local chapter of the Berlin based global organisation, said the country had been able to reduce corruption in the education sector. It showed that corruption scale dropped to12 per cent from earlier 14.8 per cent.
The report was made drawing responses from around 1800 respondents from across the country. It also mentioned in its 2007 report that some 39 per cent people used to pay bribes for availing education which was 15 per cent in 2010 and 14.8 per cent in 2012.
In the outgoing calendar year, Bangladesh was placed at third position among the South Asian countries showing corruption index at 12 per cent. It is 3 per cent in Nepal and Maldives, while the level of corruption in education in India is much higher at 48 per cent, Pakistan at 16 and Sri Lanka at 13 per cent.
Meanwhile, frequent leakages of question papers of the public examinations from primary school to public service tests during this period was much talked among the guardians. This also gave rise to frustration among candidates appearing in those examinations.
Educationists and the victim students have blamed the government for its failure to protect them from the nuisance. They suggested the authorities concerned to take visible action in this regard.
Following written allegations, the government took different initiatives including cancelation of the examinations, but the initiatives failed to satisfy the people.
The government cancelled the written test for the recruitment of assistant teachers in government primary schools in 17 districts after probe committee found authenticity about question paper leakage.
The administration acknowledged that the probe committee found out that two sets, out of seven sets of question papers, had been leaked before the written examinations.
Held on November 8 this year, it was one of the largest recruitment examinations where around 968,127 job aspirants sat for the written test across the country to qualify for 7,000 posts of assistant teachers in the government primary schools.
Earlier, the state-owned Agrani Bank authorities cancelled their recruitment test for the post of Senior Officer held on May 31 as the authorities found evidence of question paper leakage. However, the bank authorities have retaken the examination.
In addition allegations of question paper leakage of the public examinations like Primary School Certificate (PSC), Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) have been found.
Following written allegations from the students and their guardians, the Directorate of Primary Education filed a case in connection with the leakage of PSC question papers that were publicly available before the examinations took place.  
Director (Administration) Mahbubun Nahar of the directorate filed the case with Mirpur Police Station under Information Technology Act, "We have information that the question papers were available on internet. The case has been filed to probe the matter," she told the reporters recently.
Leakage of question papers at their maiden public examination is putting huge mental pressure on the minor students.
Such kind of the leakage is also pushing the children into negative impression about their first public examination and they might develop a negative attitude toward education as well as the society.
It has been reported that the question papers of all subjects, Bengali, English, Mathematics and Bangladesh and Global Studies of the PSC examinations had been publicly available before the examinations. Even some news agencies uploaded those on their websites.
It has been observed that a group of students belonging to some political groups become active in different areas of the capital before such public examinations and make a huge amount of money through selling the question papers to some unscrupulous students and their guardians.
Some coaching centres and dishonest teachers, officials and guardians were also making the children dependent on allegedly leaked questions leading the children into frustration.
The writer is DU Correspondent
of the FE